The Ships Are Coming: Stick to Your Job, Be on the Job for Victory
A painting of dazzle-camouflaged steamships sits above a block of plain text addressed to shipyard and factory workers, asking for a full day's work every day. The tell of transfer is the pairing of the workers' attendance with the soldiers' sacrifice ('the boys in the trenches are fighting for you'), so that staying at one's job is framed as service at the front.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1918
- Period
- First World War
- Made by
- U.S. Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Wilson Administration
- Leader
- Woodrow Wilson
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- Labor, War and the military, Home front
- Event
- World War I
- Regime
- Wilson administration
- Leader
- Woodrow Wilson
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives (NARA), RG 4 (U.S. Food Administration), World War I Posters (NAID 512439), retrieved October 3, 2026
- Rights
- NARA Unrestricted; hosted by owner decision
U.S. Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation. National Archives and Records Administration, 4-P-44.
Text on the object
[artist's signature at upper right of the picture: illegible] THOMSEN-ELLIS CO. BALTIMORE NEW YORK The Ships Are Coming YOU can help send this good news to our boys "Over There" by giving your employer a full day's work every day. You are doing Government War Work. The product made here is urgently needed for American ships. By jumping from place to place you are hindering their rapid completion. Stick to your job The boys in the trenches are fighting for you. Help them to victory by working faithfully for them. Let all be On the Job for Victory UNITED STATES SHIPPING BOARD EMERGENCY FLEET CORPORATION ISSUED BY PUBLICATIONS SECTION, EMERGENCY FLEET CORPORATION, PHILADELPHIA
