"Special Delivery for Freedom!"
A pencil drawing shows a giant, bare-chested merchant seaman pointing ahead behind the bow of a ship marked 'U.S. Merchant Marine', with the Statue of Liberty at left and the text 'Maritime Day May 22 - 1944'. The tell is transfer and glittering generalities: the Statue of Liberty and the word 'Freedom' attach a national ideal to cargo shipping.
Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon
- Date
- 1944
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Office of War Information (cartoon artwork; artist Charles Alston)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Cartoon
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Themes
- War and the military, 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 (NARA), RG 208, Artworks and Mockups for Cartoons Promoting the War Effort (NAID 535594), retrieved October 3, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
Office of War Information. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 208, 208-COM-147 (NAID 535660).
Text on the object
"SPECIAL DELIVERY FOR FREEDOM!" MARITIME DAY MAY 22 - 1944 U.S. MERCHANT MARINE
