The notice at the bottom left reads "POST FEB. 15 TO FEB. 28". Two weeks on the factory wall, then down it came. J. Howard Miller (1898 to 1985), a Pittsburgh graphic artist, made more than 42 morale posters for Westinghouse's wartime labour-management programme. The Westinghouse War Production Co-Ordinating Committee commissioned this one in 1942, and it hung inside Westinghouse factories in East Pittsburgh and the Midwest in February 1943.
No more than 1,800 copies were printed. It was strictly internal, replaced by the next poster in the series, and stayed largely unseen until it was rediscovered in the early 1980s. Since then it has appeared on the cover of Smithsonian magazine and been issued as a US Postal Service stamp. Professor James J. Kimble of Seton Hall University published research on Miller's biography in 2022.
On the poster
A female factory worker faces the viewer three-quarters on, right arm raised in a firm bicep flex, the sleeve of her cobalt blue work shirt rolled. A red polka-dot bandana is tied above her forehead and a Westinghouse employee badge is pinned to her collar. Behind her is a saturated cadmium yellow field. A navy speech-bubble panel above carries "We Can Do It!" in bold white condensed lettering.
The Westinghouse "W" logo and the committee name run along the foot.
About this print
A digitally restored reproduction, printed on 200gsm Enhanced Matte Fine Art paper with pigment inks.
