Vintage Poster Archives
WW2 Propaganda Poster 1944 | Robert Riggs Stetson
WW2 Propaganda Poster 1944 | Robert Riggs Stetson
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A US Army sergeant stands with his back to the viewer, fists clenched, facing a row of white cross grave markers on a Pacific-theatre shoreline. A bullet-pierced steel helmet rests on the nearest cross. Palm trees mark the horizon against a terracotta-red sky. Above the central panel: 'The Less Said, the Less Dead.' Below it: 'Keep it under your STETSON.'
Illustrated by Robert Riggs (1896–1970) for the John B. Stetson Company, c.1943–1944. The Stetson Company's 'Keep It Under Your Stetson' campaign ran alongside the Office of War Information's careless-talk poster series, becoming one of the most quoted anti-espionage phrases of the American WW2 home front. Riggs, a Philadelphia-based painter, lithographer, and illustrator whose realist draughtsmanship had earned him the Gold Medal of the New York Art Directors Club ten consecutive times, brought his characteristic rear-figure compositions and restrained naturalistic palette to the brief. The poster carries the lithographic imprint 'Litho. in U.S.A.' and the Stetson Company copyright in the lower margin.
Reproduced as a Giclée archival print on 200gsm Enhanced Matte Fine Art Paper. The design is from the 1943–1944 wartime campaign; every print is freshly produced to museum standard. A considered choice for anyone interested in WW2 American graphic communication, mid-century illustration, or home-front history.
