POWERS of Persuasion:

World War II Posters from AIHA's Collections

During World War II, United States government agencies, businesses and private organizations enlisted the help of America’s foremost artists, intellectuals and advertising specialists to design posters urging all citizens to support the war.   The poster---inexpensive, colorful and immediate---was an ideal medium for linking the battlefront with the home front.  Designed to instill patriotism, confidence and a positive outlook, posters were used effectively to convince the American people that an all-out effort was needed to win the war.  Posters often called upon every man, woman and child to make daily personal sacrifices in support of the national cause.  By using stark imagery and slogans to elicit powerful emotions, the posters appealed to people’s conscience, fears and ideals of freedom and democracy.  Common themes included the strength of the American spirit, patriotism and independence, a unified labor force including men and women, the conservation and rationing of food and materials, security and the notion that behavior on the home front affected success on the battlefront.  Also important were the various programs designed to raise money in the form of stamps, bonds and loans for the war effort. 

Since American opinion was a crucial element in the formula for victory in World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt created the Office of War Information (OWI), a federal agency whose purpose was to communicate the military’s needs and the war’s progress to the American people.  Print media including posters, movies, radio programs and newsreels played an important role in shaping and delivering positive consistent messaging to the American population.  Today, these posters document the powerful slogans and images of persuasion used by the United States government to mobilize the American people during World War II.  The popularity of posters as tools of propaganda was significantly enhanced by innovations in printing technology and distribution strategies.  As one U.S. Office of War Information

official put it, “We want to see posters on fences, on the walls of buildings, on village greens, on boards in front of City Hall and the Post Office, in hotel lobbies, and in the windows of vacant stores…shouting at people from unexpected places with all the urgency which this war demands.”   While the OWI developed a sophisticated distribution plan for posters on a national level, community-based volunteer defense councils developed distribution systems locally.  Although OWI tried to be the clearinghouse for all government poster design and production, the demand was too high and individual government agencies and branches of the military produced their own posters.  Large corporations like General Electric also produced posters for the work place or advertised the wartime use of certain products. 

American artists were hired to create the artwork for the posters and many were part of a pool organized by the Office of War Information.  The final selection of poster designs often included museum directors and curators.  As the demand for poster campaigns increased, organizations and corporations turned to Madison Avenue advertising agencies and commercial illustrators to create the ad campaigns, which inevitably created subtle shifts in poster design and graphics.

Drawn from the museum’s library collection, the exhibition includes a number of the most popular posters produced during World War II including Uncle Sam’s I WANT YOU for the U.S. Army; TILL WE MEET AGAIN BUY WAR BONDS, Where our men are fighting OUR FOOD IS FIGHTING, BITS OF CARELESS TALK ARE PIECED TOGETHER BY THE ENEMY and THE MARINES HAVE LANDED.

Support for these exhibitions provided by First Albany Capital and The Swyer Family. Additional Support for Navy WAVES provided by Excelsior College and The DR Group.