---
title: Become a nurse, your country needs you
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/become-a-nurse-your-country-needs-you-1942/
description: A smiling young woman has a nurse's cap placed on her head by two disembodied hands whose sleeves are striped and starred like the national flag.
section: Collection
---

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3. Become a nurse, your country needs you

[![Become a nurse, your country needs you, 1942 US poster: A smiling young woman has a nurse's cap placed on her head by two](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/become-a-nurse-your-country-needs-you-1942.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/become-a-nurse-your-country-needs-you-1942.jpg)

# Become a nurse, your country needs you

A smiling young woman has a nurse's cap placed on her head by two disembodied hands whose sleeves are striped and starred like the national flag. The headline asks readers to become a nurse because 'your country needs you'. The technique is transfer: flag symbolism lends national authority to the recruitment call.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/) [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)

## Text on the object

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

```
Federal Security Agency
U. S. PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE

become a Nurse
YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS YOU
Write Nursing Information Bureau, 1790 Broadway, New York City

OWI Poster No. 22.  Additional copies may be obtained upon request from the Division of Public Inquiries, Office of War Information, Washington, D.C.

[imprint: U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1942-O-498483]
```

[← Be smart, act dumb! Loose talk can cost lives](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/be-smart-act-dumb-1942/) [Belajarlah! Pakailah! Bahasa Nippon! (Learn! Use! The Japanese Language!) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/belajarlah-pakailah-bahasa-nippon-1942/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [Clay cylinder with the Ehulhul inscription of Nabonidus, king of Babylon, describing work on three temples](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cylinder-nabonidus-ehulhul-inscription-555bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Seated limestone statue of Hatshepsut as king, with feminine royal titles on the throne, reassembled from fragments broken up at Deir el-Bahri](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hatshepsut-seated-statue-limestone-met-1458bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer, Testimonial)
- [Glazed-brick panel with a striding lion, from Babylon (reign of Nebuchadnezzar II)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ishtar-gate-panel-striding-lion-nebuchadnezzar-ii-604bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Limestone relief block of Ramesses II wearing the White Crown, a jubilee relief from his temple at Herakleopolis](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/jubilee-relief-ramesses-ii-herakleopolis-met-05-4-256/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
- [Gypsum alabaster slab inscribed in cuneiform, from Nimrud (Kalhu), reign of Ashurnasirpal II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/nimrud-slab-ashurnasirpal-ii-inscription-883bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Egyptian alabaster jar inscribed with the name of Xerxes the Great in four languages (Old Persian, Elamite, Babylonian, Egyptian), 486 to 466 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/xerxes-jar-four-languages-486bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Transfer)