Opening The Atlas
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Prepared from the source scan: surroundings removed and the sheet levelled where required. The source record remains available below.
The Posters That Went to War · The Home Front
Be a Cadet Nurse: The Girl with a Future
Jon Whitcomb (1906-1988) · U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps, 1944
Format
Archival pigment giclée on museum-grade matte art paper, color-managed to the source scan — the flat inks and stone grain intact. The 40×60 is the room-changer.
Size
$39.00
What it is
A recruiting poster Jon Whitcomb made for the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps in 1944, held by the National Archives as 44-PA-2567 in its World War II Posters series.
Why it matters
Congress authorized the Cadet Nurse Corps on 15 June 1943 and it was signed into law on 1 July, with a provision barring discrimination by race, color or creed. Whitcomb was known for his pictures of glamorous young women and was a pioneer of the switch from oil to gouache in illustration.
What to notice
The promise of a future, made in 1944 by the illustrator of glamorous young women, to recruit them into nursing school.
A war job, sold as a career.
Provenance
- School
- The Second World War Poster (United States and the world)
- Designer
- Jon Whitcomb (1906-1988)
- Campaign
- Enlist · Women at War
- Format
- Political poster
- Poster published
- U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps, 1944
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, World War II Posters series (NAID 516294, local id 44-PA-2567), NARA scan via DPLA and Wikimedia Commons · NARA NAID 516294 · 44-PA-2567
Rights: CLEAR. Public domain — U.S. government work (the WPA Federal Art Project, the wartime agencies), any year. Gated by the poster’s own publication year. Cleared by registry on 2026-11-02. National Archives catalogue re-read 2026-11-02 (NAID 516294, 44-PA-2567): use restriction Unrestricted, access Unrestricted.
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