Enjoy these posters that were used throughout WWII to keep the interest
in the war effort up. I have tried to include a little something of
interest with each one. If you know something that might be interesting
to our visitors please
contact me. I
would be more than happy to add it to our page.
Most
Americans believe Uncle Sam was "born" in the early 20th century because
he became so visible on WWII posters. That is not the case though, Uncle
Sam was born in the early 1800s!
There were many regional American male icons predating the War of 1812
but that war renewed American interest in unified solidarity and Uncle
Sam was born.
A meat packer in New York, Sam Wilson, locally known as Uncle Sam
provided meat to the army. On the sides of the barrels he stamped US. It
was known that Uncle Sam was feeding the army, he had the contract and
marked his barrels.
This easily explained origin of Uncle Sam seems to have ballooned into
Uncle Sam as we still know him today.
By the Civil War Uncle Sam looked much like President Lincoln, aged with
a beard.
The recruiting posters by James Montgomery Flagg in 1917 produced the
Uncle Sam we know today. Although there continue to be numerous
variations on the image of Uncle Sam, the Flag version can be
considered the standard from which others deviate.
Posters and American War Time
During WWI posters were used as news channels, by WWII the radio had replaced posters as a news source.
Now they are used to rally Americans to support the war effort.The poster on the right was one of the many used to encourage Americans to support the war financially.
Posters were placed all over, specially where you wouldn't hear or see other media encouraging participation in the war effort. You would see posters in schools, factories, offices, store windows and any place else there was a post or wall to hang them on. They expressed democracy, the reason our men were fighting the war.
The Smithsonian has a fantastic collection of WWII posters on their website.
The "We Can Do IT" poster encouraged women to get out there and do the
jobs their husbands, now soldiers, used to do. There was an entire line
of these posters and all of the imagery contained patriotic women
dressed in overalls and a bandanna. In many of the posters you would see
women in uniforms, with tools in their hands or a lunch pail indicative
of factory work.
The feminine ideal was changed from frail and dainty to tough and able
to do a days work to support the armed services and our county.
This
was given to me by an 808er. I believe it is from a newspaper but I am
not sure. If you know please let me know what it is from.
Notice the tank destroyer patch on the shoulder of the soldier? This
poster or newspaper ad is a drive for money to support the tank
destroyers!
Maybe is was designed as soon as it was learned that the TDs needed to
be mechanized.
If you have any info I would certainly like to post it here.
Send me an
email.
The content and pictures found on this site are the property of the 808 TD Btn and their webmaster. You may not use any content or images without the express permission of the webmaster for any project that would or could end in any type of publication, either hard copy or internet.