---
title: Penicillin saves soldiers' lives!
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/penicillin-saves-soldiers-lives-1941/
description: Drawing of a smiling patient in a hospital bed reading a magazine, under the headline Penicillin, the new life-saving drug.
section: Collection
---

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3. Penicillin saves soldiers' lives!

[![Penicillin saves soldiers' lives!, 1941 US poster: Drawing of a smiling patient in a hospital bed reading a magazine, under](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/penicillin-saves-soldiers-lives-1941.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/penicillin-saves-soldiers-lives-1941.jpg)

# Penicillin saves soldiers' lives!

Drawing of a smiling patient in a hospital bed reading a magazine, under the headline Penicillin, the new life-saving drug. The red panel says men who might have died will live if the viewer gives this job everything, tying output to individual lives.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/) [Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)

## Text on the object

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

```
Penicillin
THE NEW LIFE-SAVING DRUG
Saves Soldiers' Lives!
Men who might have died
will live...if YOU
Give this job Everything You've got!
```

[← Paste this in your hat! We can't win without you](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/paste-this-in-your-hat-we-cant-win-without-you-1941/) [Philadelphia's Air Raid System →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/philadelphias-air-raid-system-1941/)

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- [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)
