Opening The Atlas
The next picture is on its way.
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 Marine... Free a Marine to Fight: U.S. Marine Corps Women's Reserve
Unknown (the NARA record names no artist) · U.S. Marine Corps Women's Reserve, 1942–1945
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 for the Marine Corps Women's Reserve, dated between 1942 and 1945, held by the National Archives as 44-PA-236A in its World War II Posters series, the companion of 44-PA-236B.
Why it matters
Signed into law on 30 July 1942, the Marine Corps Women's Reserve was the one women's service of the war with no official nickname: its recruits were simply Marines.
What to notice
The ellipsis between the two halves of the line, a pause between becoming a Marine and freeing one.
A pause, and then a man sent forward.
Provenance
- School
- The Second World War Poster (United States and the world)
- Designer
- Unknown (the NARA record names no artist)
- Campaign
- Enlist · Women at War
- Service
- Women’s services
- Format
- Political poster
- Poster published
- U.S. Marine Corps Women's Reserve, 1942–1945
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, World War II Posters series (NAID 513678, local id 44-PA-236A), NARA scan via DPLA and Wikimedia Commons · NARA NAID 513678 · 44-PA-236A
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 513678, 44-PA-236A): use restriction Unrestricted, access Unrestricted.
More from the Atlas
Painted Whiskers, our sister studio, will paint your pet in this school’s hand, after Be a Cadet Nurse: The Girl with a Future. See Yours Painted ↗