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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
SPARS
Unknown (the NARA record names no artist) · U.S. Coast Guard, Women's Reserve (SPARS), 1944
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 Coast Guard recruiting poster for the SPARS, dated 1944, held by the National Archives (NAID 515462) in its World War II Posters series.
Why it matters
The Coast Guard Women's Reserve was signed into law in November 1942 and named SPARS from the motto Semper Paratus; this sheet comes from the reserve's second full year.
What to notice
The headline is the acronym and nothing more, the motto carried inside five letters.
One word, with the motto inside it.
Provenance
- School
- The Second World War Poster (United States and the world)
- Designer
- Unknown (the NARA record names no artist)
- Campaign
- Enlist · Women at War
- Service
- Women’s services
- Format
- Political poster
- Poster published
- U.S. Coast Guard, Women's Reserve (SPARS), 1944
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, World War II Posters series (NAID 515462), NARA scan via DPLA and Wikimedia Commons · NARA NAID 515462
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 515462, 44-PA-1785A): use restriction Unrestricted, access Unrestricted.
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