Potatoes - the Nation's Iron Ration (Make Sure of a Full Plate)
A photograph shows men and women in work clothes lifting potatoes beside a cart, one man smiling at the camera, under a scroll reading 'Potatoes - the nation's iron ration. A record crop is being grown now. Help to gather it in'. Ordinary smiling volunteers stand in for the viewer (plain folks), and the military term 'iron ration' frames the crop as a national reserve.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1939
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- H.M. Stationery Office (printer: Multi Machine Plates Ltd, London); issuing department not stated on the poster
- Region
- Western and Central Europe
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Churchill Government
- Leader
- Winston Churchill
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- Home front, Economy and finance
- 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)
UK government poster printed for H.M. Stationery Office; H.M. Stationery Office (printer: Multi Machine Plates Ltd, London); issuing department not stated on the poster. Via US National Archives (NAID 44266560, 44-PF-197c).
Text on the object
Potatoes - the nation's iron ration. A record crop is being grown now. Help to gather it in MAKE SURE OF A FULL PLATE PRINTED FOR H.M. STATIONERY OFFICE BY MULTI MACHINE PLATES LTD. LONDON E.C.4. 51-3638
