Safety first keeps him on the job
Public Health Service poster for war workers: the cartoon worker grins while holding up a swollen, injured thumb with small radiating lines, and a white sign at upper left reads FIRST AID with an arrow pointing to the left. The headline links safety to staying at work. The injury is shown comically, not graphically; the technique is faint.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1942
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Federal Security Agency, U.S. Public Health Service (artist H. Price)
- 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
- Health, 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)
Federal Security Agency, U.S. Public Health Service (artist H. Price). National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1189G (NAID 514794).
Text on the object
FIRST AID [arrow pointing left] Federal Security Agency U. S. PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE [signature: H. PRICE] Safety first keeps him on the job [imprint: U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1942-O-485813] WH 8
