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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: Your Duty Ashore, His Afloat
Unknown (the NARA record names no artist) · U.S. Coast Guard, Women's Reserve (SPARS), 1942–1945
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 Coast Guard recruiting poster for the SPARS, dated between 1942 and 1945, held by the National Archives as 44-PA-1787 in its World War II Posters series.
Why it matters
SPARS, the Coast Guard Women's Reserve, took its name from Semper Paratus and was signed into law in November 1942, so that women could hold the shore while the men went afloat.
What to notice
The headline splits the work by place, ashore for the reader and afloat for him, with an ellipsis holding the two halves apart.
A coastline drawn between two duties.
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), 1942–1945
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, World War II Posters series (NAID 515465, local id 44-PA-1787), NARA scan via DPLA and Wikimedia Commons · NARA NAID 515465 · 44-PA-1787
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 515465, 44-PA-1787): use restriction Unrestricted, access Unrestricted.
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