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
Because Somebody Talked
Unknown (the NARA record names no artist) · Office of War Information, distributed for the issuing agencies, 1941–1945
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 poster distributed by the Office of War Information for the issuing agencies, held by the National Archives in its World War II Posters series as 44-PA-227 and dated there between 1941 and 1945.
Why it matters
It belongs to the careless-talk campaign, whose best-known line, loose lips might sink ships, came from the War Advertising Council and ran on Office of War Information posters. The OWI's Bureau of Special Services gathered the sheet into the series.
What to notice
The title reads as the end of a story whose start the reader supplies; the imprint names the Office of War Information as distributor for the issuing agencies.
A loss traced back to one loose sentence.
Provenance
- School
- The Second World War Poster (United States and the world)
- Designer
- Unknown (the NARA record names no artist)
- Campaign
- Careless Talk
- Format
- Political poster
- Poster published
- Office of War Information, distributed for the issuing agencies, 1941–1945
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, World War II Posters series (NAID 513669, local id 44-PA-227), NARA scan via DPLA and Wikimedia Commons · NARA NAID 513669 · 44-PA-227
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 513669, 44-PA-227): use restriction Unrestricted, access Unrestricted.
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