---
title: Conserve and you serve Uncle Sam
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/conserve-and-you-serve-uncle-sam-aha/
description: 'Hotel-industry waste-reduction sheet: a large open hand in a uniform cuff holds crockery, linens, a lamp bulb and furniture.'
section: Collection
---

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3. Conserve and you serve Uncle Sam

[![Conserve and you serve Uncle Sam, 1941 US poster: Hotel-industry waste-reduction sheet](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/conserve-and-you-serve-uncle-sam-aha.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/conserve-and-you-serve-uncle-sam-aha.jpg)

# Conserve and you serve Uncle Sam

Hotel-industry waste-reduction sheet: a large open hand in a uniform cuff holds crockery, linens, a lamp bulb and furniture, set against red-and-white stripes under the headline 'Conserve and you serve Uncle Sam'. The technique is transfer: the flag colours and Uncle Sam attach national service to hotel thrift.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)

## Text on the object

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

```
CONSERVE
and you
SERVE
UNCLE SAM
[seal:] AMERICAN HOTEL ASSOCIATION AHA
STOP WASTE!
$1,000,000 A DAY WASTED
Approximately $1,000,000 a day is wasted in hotels—in food spoiled or partly eaten, in wasted water or ice, in heat going out windows, in lights left on, in breakage of china and glassware, abuse of linens, improper care or handling of equipment. We know you'll do your part in stopping this waste. We have asked guests to do theirs by helping you.
```

[← Confidentially - I'm not the most important guy around here ... but my work counts, too!](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/confidentially-im-not-the-most-important-guy-1941/) [Constant care will get us there →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/constant-care-will-get-us-there-ordnance/)

## 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)