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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
Don't Kill Americans by Careless Talk!
Unknown (the NARA record names no artist) · Office of War Information, 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 for the careless-talk campaign in a long horizontal format, held by the National Archives in its World War II Posters series as 44-PA-669, dated between 1941 and 1945.
Why it matters
Careless talk was the home front's security campaign, and its best-known line, loose lips might sink ships, came from the War Advertising Council. The Office of War Information's Bureau of Special Services gathered this sheet.
What to notice
The format runs wider than it is tall, more than twice as wide, made for a long strip of wall.
Silence, asked for as a way of saving lives.
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, 1941–1945
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, World War II Posters series (NAID 514148, local id 44-PA-669), NARA scan via DPLA and Wikimedia Commons · NARA NAID 514148 · 44-PA-669
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 514148, 44-PA-669): use restriction Unrestricted, access Unrestricted.
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