---
title: The fleet protects the nation - Prudential Life Insurance protects the home (Puck centerfold, 1909)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/prudential-fleet-protects-nation-1909/
description: 'Colour centrefold advertisement in a humour weekly: a column of white-hulled steam battleships, one flying the Stars and Stripes, passes a mountain…'
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![The fleet protects the nation - Prudential Life Insurance protects the home (Puck centerfold, 1909)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/prudential-fleet-protects-nation-1909.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/prudential-fleet-protects-nation-1909.jpg)

# The fleet protects the nation - Prudential Life Insurance protects the home (Puck centerfold, 1909)

Colour centrefold advertisement in a humour weekly: a column of white-hulled steam battleships, one flying the Stars and Stripes, passes a mountain lettered 'The Prudential has the strength of Gibraltar'. The scrolled banner beneath sets the fleet's protection of the nation beside the company's protection of the home, so the navy's national prestige is placed on an insurance policy.

- **Date:** February 17, 1909
- **Period:** [Pre-1914](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=pre-1914)
- **Made by:** The Prudential Insurance Company of America (Newark, N.J.); artist H. A. Petersen
- **Region:** [North America](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=north-america)
- **Country:** [United States](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=united-states)
- **Medium:** [Advertisement](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=advertisement)
- **Issuer type:** [Corporation](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=corporation)
- **Regime:** [Theodore Roosevelt Administration](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=theodore-roosevelt-administration)
- **Leader:** [Theodore Roosevelt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=theodore-roosevelt)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Persuade or win support](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=persuade-support)
- **Themes:** [Economy and finance](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=economy-finance), [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Home front](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=home-front)
- **Techniques:** [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/2011647429/), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (published 1909; LoC: No known restrictions on publication) Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsca-26351

## Text on the object

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

```
THE
PRUDENTIAL
HAS THE
STRENGTH OF
GIBRALTAR

The FLEET PROTECTS the NATION   PRUDENTIAL LIFE INSURANCE   PROTECTS the HOME

A copy of this inspiring picture in colors will be sent free if you will write, requesting it, to Dept. P,
The Prudential Insurance Company of America.   John F. Dryden, President.   Home Office, Newark, N. J.
Incorporated as a Stock Company by the State of New Jersey.

THE PUCK PRESS
H. A. PETERSEN
Copyright, 1909, by The Prudential Insurance Company of America. [small print under the picture, partly illegible]
```

The copyright line and the 'Puck Press' imprint are in very small type; the copyright line is only partly legible in the scan.

[← Yaşasın Vatan, Yaşasın Millet, Yaşasın Hürriyet! (Long Live the Fatherland, the Nation, Liberty!)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/young-turk-constitution-postcard-1908/) [Kalem cartoon of Abdulhamid II and his secretary ("Il y a mis du temps, mais il a compris") →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kalem-abdulhamid-severed-head-cartoon-1909/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Bronze sestertius of Gaius (Caligula), reverse S P Q R P P OB CIVES SERVATOS in an oak wreath](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sestertius-caligula-ob-cives-servatos-0037/) (0037 · Testimonial, Transfer)
- [Gold coin of Kanishka: King of Kings legend, king at the altar, deity Oesho](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gold-dinar-kanishka-king-of-kings-0130/) (0130 · Transfer)
- [Gold solidus of Justinian I, reverse VICTORIA AVGGG with Victory holding a Christogram staff](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-justinian-i-victoria-avggg-0538/) (0538 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Bayeux Tapestry, scene 23: UBI HAROLD SACRAMENTVM FECIT VVILLELMO DVCI](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bayeux-tapestry-harold-oath-to-william-1070/) (1070 · Transfer, Card stacking)
- [Frontispiece to Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and Sufferings (Hollar, 1649)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eikon-basilike-frontispiece-hollar-1649/) (1649 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Consult of the doctors on the grave illness of the Grand Sultan (Consult vande medicijnen inde swaere siekte vanden grooten Sultaen)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/consult-of-the-doctors-sick-sultan-antwerp-1683/) (1683 · Transfer, Bandwagon)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)