Forensic Research Archive of Manipulation and Exploitation
Be ready for your war service: Join Red Cross Student Reserve, 1943 US poster: Painted poster of a young nurse in cap

Be ready for your war service: Join Red Cross Student Reserve

Painted poster of a young nurse in cap and white apron holding a lit candle, with a faint ghostly scene behind her of a soldier and a medic tending a patient under a drip. The headline reads 'Be ready for your war service' above 'Join Red Cross Student Reserve'. The technique is transfer: the candle and the nurse's dress carry the prestige of nursing onto enrolment.

Propaganda techniques used in this poster

TransferGlittering generalities
Date
1943
Period
Second World War
Made by
American Red Cross, Nursing Service (Student Reserve), artist Edmundson
Region
North America
Country
United States
Medium
Poster
Issuer type
NGO
Regime
Roosevelt Administration
Leader
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Audience
Domestic public
Purpose
Recruit
Themes
Health, War and the military, Home front
Event
World War II
Regime
Roosevelt administration
Leader
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Source
Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
Source
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, retrieved October 4, 2026
Rights
Public domain (U.S. government work)
American Red Cross. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-460 (NAID 513930).

Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

Be ready for your
WAR SERVICE
Join RED CROSS [red cross emblem] STUDENT RESERVE
[badge: NURSING SERVICE STUDENT RESERVE]
[signature: Edmundson]
POSTER 710B AUGUST 1943
[imprint: printer's mark, illegible]

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