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
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-236B in its World War II Posters series; 44-PA-236A is a second sheet with the same line.
Why it matters
The Marine Corps Women's Reserve was signed into law on 30 July 1942 and, unlike the WAVES and the SPARS, never had an official nickname, so its posters call its women Marines.
What to notice
The word Marine twice in one line: the woman who joins is a Marine by the first half and frees one by the second.
One Marine, signed up to free another.
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 513679, local id 44-PA-236B), NARA scan via DPLA and Wikimedia Commons · NARA NAID 513679 · 44-PA-236B
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 513679, 44-PA-236B): 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 ↗