A great number of American World War II posters were examined via the Internet. In addition to being a useful research tool, this online presence demonstrates the enduring aesthetic and historical appeal of these works for presentday viewers. Because most posters were published by the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO), they are free from copyright restrictions. One of the best collections, which contains 338 images and catalog descriptions, has been posted by the Northwestern University Library (NU Library 2002). This assemblage has been a major data source for this study. However, the collections of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA 2002) and the Smithsonian Institution (Smithsonian 2002), both of which include images and commentary, have also been consulted.

This paper investigates World War II poster campaigns in the broader framework of frugality as a value system in the evolving American consumption ideology. Because original documentation is incomplete and the surviving population of World War II posters is so scattered, World War II posters lend themselves to only the most preliminary quantitative analyses. Five frugality themes-conserving, recycling, home food production, rationing, and saving through war bonds-emerged from the iterative inspection of hundreds of different posters. The 17 examples shown in the exhibits were chosen for closer inspection primarily because they illustrate a range of frugality themes and creative executions. However, aesthetic judgments also played a role in the selection process. Advertising history naturally focuses on the best works and most influential campaigns. Many of the posters discussed herein are encountered over and over again in the published literature and on Web sites, an indication of some consensus about their artistic and persuasive qualities. The analysis of individual posters focuses on how their rhetoric and imagery tie into the larger reality of the war and domestic consumer lifestyles. This approach, a blend of historical and art historical interests, also borrows from the field of material culture studies (Fernie 1995; Prown 1982).

WORLD WAR II POSTER CAMPAIGNS: CONSUMPTION CONTEXT AND IMPLEMENTATION

The bombing of Pearl Harbor and the subsequent declarations of war initiated a period of enormous change for most Americans. After years of grueling economic depression, consumers suddenly found themselves with greater spending power. The gross national product leaped from $91 billion in 1939 to $166 billion in 1945, and the economy created 17 million new jobs (Blum 1976). The effects of this rising economic tide were widely distributed. Family incomes grew even faster for African Americans and households at lower economic levels than for the population as a whole. Moreover, millions of women found jobs and, by 1943, had $8 billion more in pocket money (Blum 1976). Consumers indulged themselves with many of the necessities and some of the comforts they had forgone in the 1930s. Even taking into account a 25% inflation rate during 1940-1943, total purchases of all goods and services were approximately 10% higher in the first quarter of 1943 than in the first quarter of 1940. Blum (1976) contends that the new prosperity and surge in buying created a mood of buoyancy and excitement among consumers, as well as dreams of even more when the war ended.

However, the exigencies of the war effort frustrated much consumer spending. The War Production Board allocated scarce materials and stopped or limited the production of civilian goods, causing the sale of durable goods at retail to drop 33% from 1941 to 1942 and an additional 50% from 1942 to 1943 (Williams 1972). Crucial shortages developed in the areas of housing and medical services. Meanwhile, the Office of Price Administration (OPA) froze many consumer prices and rationed common items such as gasoline, coffee, butter, shoes, sugar, and meat. Adding to these market distortions, wartime scarcity necessitated changes in product and packaging materials, forms, and colors (Hine 1995; Sitikoff 1994; Ward 1994a). To economize on fabric, for example, women's hats became smaller, skirts shorter, and many items of clothing simpler and more informal (Williams 1972). Rayon replaced silk and nylon in hosiery until it too became scarce. Because tin was in short supply, companies switched from metal cans to glass jars and paperboard lids.

Several different agencies of the U.S. government, with the help of the mass media, libraries, schools, and volunteer groups, organized propaganda campaigns to rally the home front and achieve compliance with various program mandates. This massive effort to mold public opinion and behavior was coordinated by the OWI, established by Executive Order 9182 on June 13, 1942. The OWI conveyed its messages through the press, radio, motion pictures, and other media. Poster campaigns were the responsibility of the OWI Bureau of Graphics, which reviewed campaign proposals submitted by other federal agencies, supervised the creation of graphic materials, gave advice on how to solve printing and distribution problems, and distributed posters for the OWI and other agencies (NARA 2002). Some firms, such as Texaco and the Douglas Aircraft Company, also commissioned posters. The OWI made available sheets of stock logos and clip art, such as the war bond minuteman, for inclusion in commercial advertising (NU Library 2002).

By the 1940s, the American people had significant experience with the poster as a form of government advertising. Posters had proclaimed Independence in 1776, Secession in 1861, and Emancipation in 1863. They had recruited soldiers for America's wars and sold political candidates to voters. Before entering World War I, the federal government had conducted a national preparedness campaign using posters. After war was declared on April 6, 1917, posters became ubiquitous. On April 14, the Women's Suffrage Party and the Boy Scouts plastered New York City with 20,000 recruiting posters (Crawford 1979). Prominent artists created war posters, and James Montgomery Flagg's image of Uncle Sam pointing his finger and saying "I Want You for the U.S. Army" became perhaps the best known American poster of all time (Breclhoff 1994). In 1936, the Federal Art Project, which already had been funding 6,000 visual and performing artists, opened in New York the first of many studio workshops for printmakers nationwide. Graphic artists developed new silkscreen techniques that simplified mass production of posters (Smithsonian 2002). Soon, these groups began directing their work toward public service:

The messages of federal, state, and municipal agencies were spread everywhere by ingenious and aesthetic posters printed by graphic artists. By mid-1940, some 500 poster artists had provided 1.6 million posters from 30,500 original designs. These posters promoted fire prevention, prenatal care, noise abatement, better housing, the reading of books, treatment of venereal disease, good nutrition, consumer interests, and a thousand other good causes. So cheap and effective was this product, that these artists could count on support from nearly every government agency. (Meltzer 1976, p. 79)

During World War II, more than 800 artists, who belonged to "Artists for Victory," designed posters. Many were graphic arts professionals, some of whom had contributed poster designs during World War I, but many were more or less talented amateurs (Nelson 1991). A simpler, more graphic, more three-dimensional style replaced the flat, somewhat ethereal, "European" look typical of poster art in World War I. Abstract art was used infrequently. Most World War II posters were based on hand-drawn illustrations, sometimes in a cartoon or comic strip format, but many used photographs and photo montages. Posters used many of the pictorial devices of period advertising, including a stress on young, good-looking models, the vast majority of whom were white.

Unlike the hyperbolic propaganda of World War I, which inspired fear and hatred of the enemy, President Roosevelt preferred more positive imagery that involved citizens and personalized their own war efforts. The United States entered World War II with resolve, but also with a touch of fatalism and without heroics, which made the crusading zeal of 1917 seem out of place (Crawford 1979). The sophisticated use of mass media for political indoctrination worldwide made people "increasingly conscious of propaganda as something deceptive and .evil" (Nelson 1991, p. 139). One government-commissioned study found that realistic pictures containing photographic details and employing direct emotional appeals were more effective than symbolic or humorous approaches (Bredhoff 1994; Smithsonian 2002). Most, but by no means all, poster art followed these principles.

War posters came in a variety of shapes and sizes, from flyers to car cards to large outdoor billboards. Posters in the Northwestern Library collection are typically midsized sheets (about 70 × 55cm), but items include small handbills (about 35 × 28cm), oversized sheets (about 100 × 70cm), and two banners (about 23 × 150cm). Print runs, generally between 75,000 and 170,000 (Nelson 1991), were widely distributed in public areas-schools, factories, offices, and store windows-where paid advertising was less common. During the war, approximately five million copies of Flagg's famous "I Want You" poster were printed (Nelson 1991). Much of the legwork needed to actually put up posters was voluntary. The Boy Scouts of America alone distributed one million posters a month for the OWI (Nelson 1991).

PREACHING FRUGALITY: THEMES AND EXECUTIONS

The breadth of poster topics and imagery during World War II was impressive. Government campaigns encouraged men and women to enlist in the military, get a war job, and step up production. Other campaigns warned of spies and saboteurs and how careless talk could compromise security and cost soldiers' lives. Portrayals of Nazi and Japanese brutality, though often exaggerated to the point of being cartoonish, were intended to create fear in audiences, whereas the graphic depiction of the sacrifices of American fighting men were supposed to stir guilt feelings. A few campaigns presented an idealized version of racial harmony at a time when racial tolerance was in short supply (Blum 1976). President Roosevelt's famous "four freedoms" (freedom of speech and worship, freedom from want and fear) speech of January 6, 1941, inspired Norman Rockwell to create a series of paintings first circulated by The Saturday Evening Post and then reproduced as posters by the GPO in 1943 for the OWI. Compared with public rhetoric in the United States today, very few references were made to God and religion other than white crosses symbolizing dead soldiers.

To get a sense of how frequently frugality themes-conserving, recycling, producing at home, rationing, and buying war bonds-appeared in all World War II poster campaigns, an analysis of the Northwestern University (NU) collection is shown in Table 1. The NU Library breaks its collection of 338 images into 14 topics, 5 of which-war bonds, conserve materials, OPA, canning/rationing, and Victory Gardens-cover the frugality themes of interest herein. Together, these 5 categories account for more than one-third of the entire collection. Approximately 1 poster in 7 sold war bonds. These results should be taken as preliminary, however, because the NU collection may not be a representative sample of the entire universe of possibly thousands of different war posters.

The three posters in Figure 1 illustrate variations on the conservation theme of being thrifty with consumer goods and services. "Use It Up-Wear It Out-Make It Do!" (OWI 1943a) depicts time-honored and gendered household roles in which the wife brandishes a sewing needle and thread, while her husband sharpens the blade of his lawn mower. Women sewing and men using edge tools had characterized the division of labor in American households since colonial times (Larkin 1988). These skills came in handy during the war. Repairmen became scarce, and according to a 1943 survey by the American Home Economics Association, 55% of its respondents complained about deteriorating quality in shoes and clothing (Campbell 1984). In the 1930s, most housewives had practiced frugal consumption. To save money, they relearned traditional domestic arts and how to make do with what they had (Hill, Hirschman, and Bauman 1997), but "When the nation went to war, the rhetoric changed. Concern for family was replaced with a call to enlist in a great national effort" (McFeely 1994, p. 106). The second poster, "Food Is a Weapon, Don't Waste It!" (OWI 1943b), shows how food, like so much else in American life, had become charged with a new meaning: a weapon of war. The nutrition reference in the bottom subheading was the topic of numerous war posters (more than 9% of the NU Library collection) that encouraged Americans to take steps to maintain their health. The third poster, "SERVE our fighting men abroad, CONSERVE these services at home" (War Production Board 1943), is a two-color sheet sponsored by the War Production Board. It reminded consumers that they must be frugal with electrical, water, telephone, and transportation services, as well as with tangible goods.

In Figure 2, two posters illustrate an important component of the conservation message: why and how drivers should save on gasoline and automobile tires. During World War II, the United States was able to supply its petroleum needs through domestic production, so gasoline shortages were not too serious a problem. Consumers disliked gasoline rationing, but it was necessary to conserve automobiles, trucks, and tires. Rubber and replacement parts, not gasoline, were in short supply (Blum 1976). "I'll carry mine tool" (Office of Defense Transportation 1943) juxtaposes soldiers marching in full battle gear with a woman walking home carrying packages and groceries in her arms. Using a haggard GI to directly address the viewer, "Have You Really Tried to Save Gas by Getting into a Car Club?" (OPA 1944a) combines guilt with a specific behavioral initiative (ride-sharing) that commuters could adopt. As the war progressed, the portrayal of American soldiers in poster art became increasingly realistic and more apt to show suffering and death.

Three examples of recycling-themed posters are shown in Figure 3. "Save Your Cans: Help Pass the Ammunition" (War Production Board 1941-1942), by McClelland Barclay, USNR, provides a compelling illustration that imagines tin cans leaving a woman's outstretched arm to become an ammunition belt feeding into a machine gun. In the lower left corner are printed the steps consumers should take to "prepare your tin cans for war." "Save Waste Fats for Explosives" (OWI 1943c), by Henry Koerner, makes another stunning visual connection between the kitchen, represented by a well-manicured female hand pouring a stream of fat from a frying pan, and actual hostilities, epitomized by a veritable explosion of bullets, bombs, and shells. At the bottom of the poster, consumers are given the command: "take them to your meat dealer." Neighborhood butchers and grocery stores handled much of the recycling of waste fats. This responsibility added to their close, often onerous contact with federal agencies that also deluged them with requests to promote the most plentiful food commodities, educate their customers about changing rules, and administer price ceilings and ration coupon redemption (Marchand 1994). "Wanted for Victory" (Office of Production Management 1942) features a mother, father, and son all doing their part in recycling. America's children, organized through schools and youth groups, contributed greatly to the recycling effort. They picked their neighborhoods clean of paper, scrap metal, and old tires (Bailey 1977).

Additional campaigns encouraged frugality through growing and preserving food at home. Outside the densely populated urban centers of the East Coast and upper Midwest, most Americans still lived on farms, in small towns, or in sparsely populated cities where it was possible to have a garden. An oral history study of World War II consumers in Southern California found several respondents who mentioned raising chickens (Witkowski and Hogan 1999). Examples of the canning/rationing theme in Figure 4 include "Can All You Can: It's a Real War Job" (OWI 1943d), "Gruw More ... Can More ... in "44" (War Food Program 1944), and "Your Victory Garden Counts More Than Ever!" (War Food Administration 1945). These posters all contain a contradiction, in that their messages about the need for tending gardens and home canning were somewhat undercut by images of abundance in the form of giant-sized vegetables. Victory Gardens may have been more important psychologically than substantively, in that they gave Americans a sense of participation. In a November 1941 press release, the U.S. Department of Agriculture actually warned against planting "emergency" or "defense" gardens because farmers were producing plenty of food more efficiently, and labor could better be devoted to other war jobs (Nelson 1991). However, as gardens proliferated, the government saw their propaganda value and began to commission new posters. The reference to canning supplies in "Grow More ... Can More ... in '44" belies the fact that pressure cookers and other canning supplies, especially sugar, were in short supply. Across the nation, women organized community canning centers to share equipment and learn techniques (McFeely 1994).