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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
Careless Words Can Liquidate Ships: Better Button Up Those Blabber-Lips
Unknown (the NARA record names no artist) · Pendleton Field, Oregon, 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 made at Pendleton Field, Oregon, held by the National Archives in its World War II Posters series as 44-PA-157, dated between 1941 and 1945.
Why it matters
Not every careless-talk poster came from Washington: this one carries the name of a single airfield in Oregon. The campaign's best-known line, loose lips might sink ships, came from the War Advertising Council.
What to notice
The slang of the title, liquidate and blabber-lips, and the imprint naming Pendleton Field.
A base telling its own to keep quiet.
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
- Pendleton Field, Oregon, 1941–1945
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, World War II Posters series (NAID 513603, local id 44-PA-157), NARA scan via DPLA and Wikimedia Commons · NARA NAID 513603 · 44-PA-157
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 513603, 44-PA-157): use restriction Unrestricted, access Unrestricted.
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