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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
That Was the Day I Joined the WAVES
Unknown (the NARA record names no artist) · U.S. Navy, Women's Reserve (WAVES), 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 Navy recruiting poster for the WAVES, dated between 1942 and 1945, held by the National Archives as 44-PA-141 in its World War II Posters series.
Why it matters
The WAVES were the Navy's women's reserve, established by Congress on 21 July 1942 and signed into law by Roosevelt on 30 July to put women into the shore posts and send the men to sea.
What to notice
The headline is written in the past tense, as a memory, so the decision on the sheet reads as already taken and already worth recalling.
Enlistment, kept as a day to remember.
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. Navy, Women's Reserve (WAVES), 1942–1945
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, World War II Posters series (NAID 513589, local id 44-PA-141), NARA scan via DPLA and Wikimedia Commons · NARA NAID 513589 · 44-PA-141
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 513589, 44-PA-141): use restriction Unrestricted, access Unrestricted.
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