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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 · Over There
Keep the American Flag on the Seas: Join the Navy
Frank Vining Smith · City of Boston Committee on Public Safety, 1917
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 colour lithograph Frank Vining Smith drew for Navy recruiting in 1917, printed by the Smith & Porter Press of Boston for the City of Boston Committee on Public Safety, 56 by 36 cm, from the Willard and Dorothy Straight Collection.
Why it matters
Boston's Committee on Public Safety issued its own Navy recruiting sheets, and this one closes on the line your country needs you.
What to notice
Battleships at sea, under the flag the title asks men to keep there.
The flag, kept afloat by enlistment.
Provenance
- School
- The Great War Poster (United States and the world)
- Designer
- Frank Vining Smith
- Printer / house
- Smith & Porter Press, Boston
- Campaign
- Enlist
- Service
- Navy
- Format
- Political poster
- Poster published
- City of Boston Committee on Public Safety, 1917
- Source
- Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division · LCCN 2002699360 · POS - WWI - US, no. 450 (C size) [P&P]
Rights: CLEAR. Public domain — U.S. 95-year rule (published 1930 or earlier). Gated by the poster’s own publication year. Cleared by registry on 2026-11-02. Commons licence re-read 2026-11-02 on the Commons mirror of the same LoC scan: Public domain (PD-1923, PD-Layout, PD-US-expired).
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