For trade, travel, defense: the American Merchant Marine! National Maritime Day, May 22, 1947
A passenger and cargo ship, marked 'U.S. Merchant Marine', is loaded at a pier while dockworkers move crates, under a red banner reading 'for TRADE TRAVEL DEFENSE' and a blue panel announcing National Maritime Day. The slogan strings three broad goods together as the case for the merchant fleet (glittering generalities).
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1947
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- National Maritime Day poster (issuer not printed on the sheet)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Mixed
- Regime
- Truman Administration
- Leader
- Harry S. Truman
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Commemorate
- Themes
- Economy and finance, War and the military
- 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)
National Maritime Day poster (issuer not named). National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-811 (NAID 514306).
Text on the object
for TRADE·TRAVEL·DEFENSE- The AMERICAN MERCHANT MARINE! NATIONAL MARITIME DAY MAY 22, 1947 [on ship's bow:] U.S. MERCHANT MARINE [on gangway:] [...]ARINE LINE
