Axidunce cartoon: Safety rules, Exhibit A, he doesn't observe rules
Axidunce, Exhibit A: Leo's injured worker in a dunce cap
A worker on a crutch in a dunce cap labeled AXIDUNCE stands under a board of scribbled safety rules. Signed "Leo FOR OWI," imprint OWI-1986. NAID 513908.
Techniques named on the archive record
Name-callingFear appeal
Date
1941
Made by
Office of War Information, cartoon by Leo
Medium
Poster
Country
United States
Regime
Roosevelt Administration
NARA
NAID 513908; Record Group 44
Source
Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
Source
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters , retrieved October 4, 2026
Source
Public domain (U.S. government work) Office of War Information. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-441J (NAID 513908).
Object, image, and catalog record from the FRAME archive. Text on this page is CC BY 4.0. Image rights are as the archive records.
Axidunce cartoon: Safety rules, Exhibit A is a pen cartoon signed "Leo FOR OWI" with the imprint OWI-1986. A bandaged worker on a crutch, arm in a sling, wears a dunce cap marked AXIDUNCE under a board of ten unreadable safety rules. The archive dates it 1941 (NAID 513908).
Exhibit A
The figure is a worker who has already paid. He leans on a crutch, his arm is in a sling, and he is bandaged. On his head is a dunce cap lettered AXIDUNCE. Above him is a board headed "Safety Rules" with ten numbered lines, all drawn as scribbles. A sign reads like a courtroom label.
SAFETY RULES
1 [illegible scribble]
[...]
10 [illegible scribble]
AXIDUNCE
EXHIBIT A
HE DOESN'T
OBSERVE
RULES
[imprint:] OWI-1986
[signature:] Leo FOR OWI
The word does the work
"Axidunce" reads as a blend of accident, dunce and Axis. The archive's own reading is that the label casts careless workers as helpers of the Axis by mockery: the worker who ignores the rules is a fool, and by the sound of the word he is also on the enemy's side. The FRAME catalog tags name-calling and fear appeal: the mockery is the first, the crutch and sling the second.
The rules themselves are unreadable, and that choice is telling. The cartoon does not teach any rule. It teaches that breaking rules makes you a joke and a liability. Workplace safety is a fair subject for a public campaign, and an injured man is a strong argument for care. Tying a careless worker to the enemy by a pun, though, stretches the point. An accident is not disloyalty, and the sheet blurs the two for a laugh.
The date and the signature
The archive dates the sheet 1941, and the signature says it was drawn for the OWI. This site's Roosevelt administration essay dates the order that created the Office of War Information to 13 June 1942. The record does not explain the gap, and this page does not settle it; the catalog year and the imprint are both reported as the archive gives them.
The archive holds the cartoon among other Axidunce sheets, such as Never wear loose clothes. The Office of War Information hub and its poster index list the agency's sheets on this site.
Sources
FRAME object record, Axidunce cartoon: Safety rules, Exhibit A, he doesn't observe rules, dated 1941. Office of War Information, cartoon by Leo.
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, 44-PA-441J, NAID 513908, retrieved by the archive 4 October 2026. Rights as recorded: public domain (U.S. government work).
