US price control poster
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 19.500 inches (49.53 cm) | Width: 14.250 inches (36.195 cm)
Creator(s)
- United States Government Printing Office (Printer)
- United States Office of Price Administration (Distributor)
Archival History
The poster was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1988 by David and Zelda Silberman.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of David and Zelda Silberman
Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Scope and Content
This poster is part of the price control program established by the Office of Price Administration in the US during World War II. The OPA was formed on August 28, 1941 by President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 8875. After the passage of the Emergency Price Control Act on January 30, 1942, the OPA tried to counteract the rising prices of food and commodities by introducing rationing and fixing price ceilings on goods. The combination of shipping food and commodities to our troops and allies and the high priority placed on military goods left a scarcity of supplies on the US home front. The OPA developed a local board system in every county and almost every city and town in the US to administer price control and rationing. Price panel assistants would visit local stores to make sure that prices were adjusted accordingly, and report those that were not. The government sent ration tables and price control posters, such as this one, to retailers who would hang them on the walls for the public. Price control continued until November 9, 1946 when President Truman signed an executive order ending all wage and price controls except on rents, sugar, and rice.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Paper, mailing poster with 1 vertical and 1 horizontal fold making 4 folded sections. When unfolded, the front has 2 rectangular printed illustration panels at the top on a yellow background. They each depict the a woman in right profile in gray clothes reaching for a brown basket full of goods on a black rectangle with COST OF LIVING written in brown, and a green line below with brown text. In the left panel the woman is reaching to the basket above her head with 1918 printed across the image, and in the right panel the woman is grabbing an orange carrot and red apple at a waist high basket with 1944 printed across the image in blue. Below the panels is a block of text describing the benefits of government price control. At the bottom right is a printed blue circle with the image of the head and shoulders of a woman wearing an apron with her right hand held up in a pledge and white stars across the top. There is small black informational text along the bottom edge.
Subjects
- World War, 1939-1945--Posters.
- World War, 1939-1945--Economic aspects--United States.
- War posters, American.
Genre
- Posters
- Object