Tidiness Prevents Accidents
A photographed hand reaches down toward a loose nut, bolt and wing-nut lying in a pool of light on a workshop floor, under the lower-case slogan 'tidiness prevents accidents'. The tell for fear-appeal is the looming hand and long shadow, which present the stray parts as an injury risk to the viewer's own workplace.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1939
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Ministry of Labour and National Service, produced by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents; 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, 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; Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents; printed by Loxley Bros. Ltd., c. 1939-1945. U.S. National Archives, World War II Foreign Posters (NAID 44267267).
Text on the object
tidiness prevents accidents 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. ML/57 Printed by LOXLEY BROS. LTD.
