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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
If You Talk Too Much This Man May Die
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 careless-talk poster of the Second World War, dated between 1941 and 1945, held by the National Archives as 44-PA-160 in its World War II Posters series.
Why it matters
The careless-talk campaign's most famous line, loose lips might sink ships, was created by the War Advertising Council and used on posters by the Office of War Information.
What to notice
The demonstrative this man: the headline points at a single serviceman and makes the reader answerable for him.
A life, held on the reader's tongue.
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 513607, local id 44-PA-160), NARA scan via DPLA and Wikimedia Commons · NARA NAID 513607 · 44-PA-160
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 513607, 44-PA-160): use restriction Unrestricted, access Unrestricted.
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