Opening The Atlas
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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
Use It Up, Wear It Out, Make It Do!
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 conservation poster held by the National Archives in its World War II Posters series as 44-PA-382, gathered by the Office of War Information's Bureau of Special Services and dated between 1941 and 1945.
Why it matters
The War Production Board, set up in January 1942 under Executive Order 9024, rationed scarce materials, and the slogan asked households to buy nothing new they could do without.
What to notice
Three short imperatives in a row, each one a step further from buying new.
Thrift, written as a soldier's drill.
Provenance
- School
- The Second World War Poster (United States and the world)
- Designer
- Unknown (the NARA record names no artist)
- Campaign
- Production
- 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 513834, local id 44-PA-382), Hennepin County Library scan via DPLA and Wikimedia Commons · NARA NAID 513834 · 44-PA-382
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 513834, 44-PA-382): use restriction Unrestricted, access Unrestricted.
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