Vintage Poster Archives
Dear God Keep Them Safe 1942 | Kroger War Bonds Poster
Dear God Keep Them Safe 1942 | Kroger War Bonds Poster
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Two children in gas masks walk to school, holding hands against a yellow-green background. The girl carries an apple for her teacher, the boy clutches his fourth-grade reader. Above them, white letters spell out the desperate plea: "DEAR GOD, keep them safe!"
Commissioned by the Kroger Grocery & Baking Company of Cincinnati, Ohio in 1942, this poster represents one of the most emotionally charged war bonds appeals of the home front era. Unlike the thousands of government-issued propaganda posters, this was privately printed by the grocery chain in small quantities to express their patriotism and encourage civilian investment in the war effort.
The composition borders on surrealism in its stark juxtaposition of childhood innocence with wartime necessity. These are ordinary American schoolchildren prepared for the extraordinary possibility of gas attack. The poster's haunting power lies in its everyday normalcy made alien by the machinery of protection.
A historical document from 1942, when American parents genuinely feared chemical warfare might reach the homeland. This archival print preserves a moment when corporate America joined the propaganda effort through privately commissioned poster campaigns.
