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
- Date
- 1942
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Federal Security Agency, U.S. Public Health Service (OWI Poster No. 22)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Recruit
- Themes
- Health, Gender and suffrage, War and the military
- 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)
Federal Security Agency, U.S. Public Health Service. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-135 (NAID 513583).
Text on the object
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]
