Cotton Goes to War: Your Army Needs High Grade Cotton
Two-page comic-strip sheet: on the left, panels of a rifleman, an aircraft, jungle and ski troops each tied to high-grade cotton; on the right, a soldier and a cotton picker talk in speech balloons. The farmer addresses the soldier directly, a plain-folks voice, while the front-line scenes lend the war's weight to careful picking.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1941
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Artist H. E. Chapman (issuer not printed)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Mixed
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- Home front, Economy and finance
- 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)
Artist H. E. Chapman (issuer not printed). National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-611 (NAID 514089).
Text on the object
Soldier's uniforms must be tough- that calls for high-grade cotton Rudders and other control surfaces of planes are high-grade cotton fabric Jungle fighters wear canvas boots, sleep in canvas hammocks - made of high-grade cotton Ski troops wear uniforms of high-grade cotton GOSH! HIGH-GRADE COTTON IS MIGHTY IMPORTANT TO THE WAR, ISN'T IT? IT SURE IS. HOW GOOD IS YOUR COTTON? SOLDIER, YOU CAN DEPEND ON MY COTTON I'M PICKING IT DRY ... NOT TOO GREEN OR TOO SOON AFTER RAIN OR DEW .. AND I DON'T LET IT STAY IN THE FIELD UNTIL IT GETS DIRTY AND DISCOLORED. I'M KEEPING TRASH AND LEAVES OUT OF IT, TOO. [signature: H E Chapman]
