Handle carefully: Beware sharp edges on castings
Factory safety poster: two bare hands in shirtsleeves reach toward a grey metal casting whose edge is serrated, between a banner 'HANDLE CAREFULLY' and a lower banner 'BEWARE SHARP EDGES ON CASTINGS'. The technique is faint: the hand poised over the sharp edge implies a cut, a mild fear-appeal to workers, with no injury shown.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1944
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- U.S. Department of Labor, Division of Labor Standards
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Themes
- Labor, Home front
- 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)
U.S. Department of Labor, Division of Labor Standards. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1198 (NAID 514804).
Text on the object
HANDLE CAREFULLY BEWARE SHARP EDGES ON CASTINGS Reproduced by the United States Department of Labor, Division of Labor Standards, Washington, D. C. By Permission of the Ministry of Labour and National Service, London [imprint: U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1944-O-596233] [handwritten: 44-PA-1198]
