"Let Me Do the Talking! Serve in Silence" (WPA, San Francisco, 1941-1943)
A large cannon pointed at the viewer sits above 'Let me do the talking! Serve in silence', with the issuer named on a black strip. The tell: the cannon gets the speaking role, and the viewer's own talk is made the thing to hold back.
A 1943 poster issued by the San Francisco Junior Chamber of Commerce and printed by the Northern California WPA Art Program, addressed to the domestic public on wartime secrecy. A large cannon points at the viewer above "LET ME DO THE TALKING! SERVE IN SILENCE". The archive tags fear appeal: the cannon takes the speaking role, and the viewer's own talk is made the thing to hold back. The issuer is a civic body, while the printer is a federal programme, which the record notes.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1943
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- San Francisco Junior Chamber of Commerce, printed by the Northern California WPA Art Program
Full record
Region, Country, Medium, Issuer type, Regime, Leader, Audience, Purpose, Themes, Event, Source, Rights
- 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
- Security and surveillance, 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
- Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, retrieved October 10, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. federal WPA work); LoC: no known restrictions on publication
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LCCN 98518112. "Let Me Do the Talking! Serve in Silence" (WPA, San Francisco, 1941-1943)
Text on the object
Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked
LET ME DO THE TALKING! SERVE IN SILENCE ISSUED BY THE SAN FRANCISCO JUNIOR CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
