Background
Historical Source Material
- Propaganda posters produced in Britain during the Second World War
serve as important visual source material for historians. The images
themselves provide a valuable social and, to a lesser extent, also
artistic commentary on life in Britain during the early 1940s. The
posters are also instructive in political terms. The choice of subject
matter indicates the priorities and preoccupations of those on whose
behalf they were produced, which was, in most cases, the wartime
Government.
Ministry of Information
- The co-ordination of domestic propaganda in Britain during the
Second World War was carried out mainly by the Ministry of Information,
established at the outbreak of war in 1939. Its prime purpose was to
sustain civilian morale and its functions included the production of
propaganda posters both for itself and for other branches of
Government. These "weapons on the wall", as they were sometimes known,
had the advantage of being cheap to produce and easy to distribute.
Propaganda Campaigns
- Posters were not the totality of Government wartime propaganda in
Britain. They were often used as part of a coordinated campaign
together with films, radio broadcasts, pamphlets, and articles and
advertisements in newspapers and magazines. The most powerful mass
medium of our contemporary society - television - was not, of course,
available during the Second World War.
Role of Posters
- Propaganda posters were designed for a variety of locations, some for
external display on street hoardings, others for display inside shops,
pubs, factories and offices. But, wherever displayed, in order to be
effective, posters had to achieve three main objectives - they first had
to attract the attention of those passing by; having done so they had to
communicate their message clearly; and lastly that message had to imprint
itself on the memory.
Poster Themes
- The posters selected for this Detailed Study have been divided into
six key themes. The themes are not mutually exclusive and some posters
relate to more than one category. Other posters fall outside the main
themes and are located in a seventh, miscellaneous section.