From 1 to 5 Years Is the Vital Period
Five photographed children's faces fill a red warning triangle beside the words 'From 1 to 5 years is the vital period'. The tell is the road-sign warning triangle, which signals caution without the poster stating what the danger or the advised action is.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1939
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Ministry of Health (inferred); printed for H.M. Stationery Office by Multi Machine Plates Ltd., London
- Region
- Western and Central Europe
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Churchill Government
- Leader
- Winston Churchill
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Themes
- Health, Home front
- Event
- World War II
- Leader
- Winston Churchill
- 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 Foreign Posters, retrieved October 3, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (UK Crown copyright, 50 years from publication, expired before 1996; no URAA restoration)
Printed for H.M. Stationery Office by Multi Machine Plates Ltd., undated (WWII). US National Archives, NAID 44266522 (44-PF-183).
Text on the object
FROM 1 TO 5 YEARS IS THE VITAL PERIOD PRINTED FOR H.M. STATIONERY OFFICE BY MULTI MACHINE PLATES LTD. LONDON E.C.4. 51-2575
