Handles Protect Hands
A hand with a bleeding gash, blackened fingers and a loose bandage is shown above a metal file with no handle, under the slogan 'Handles Protect Hands'. The fear-appeal tell is the injury imagery used to motivate a workshop safety habit.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1941
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Ministry of Labour and National Service; produced by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents; artist Pat Keely; printed by Loxley Bros. Ltd.
- 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
- Labor, 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)
Ministry of Labour and National Service; artist Pat Keely, 1941. US National Archives (NARA), WWII Foreign Posters, 44-PF-198.
Text on the object
HANDLES PROTECT HANDS Issued by the Ministry of Labour and National Service and produced by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, Terminal House, 52, Grosvenor Gardens, London, S.W.1. Printed by LOXLEY BROS. LTD. ML/30 [signature:] Pat Keely '41
