American Propaganda
For trade, travel, defense: the American Merchant Marine! National Maritime Day, May 22, 1947, 1947 US poster: A passenger

For trade, travel, defense: the American Merchant Marine! National Maritime Day, May 22, 1947

For Trade, Travel, Defense (1947), the American Merchant Marine

A poster for National Maritime Day, 22 May 1947, catalogued as "For trade, travel, defense: the American Merchant Marine!" NAID 514306.

Techniques named on the archive record

Glittering generalities
Date
1947
Made by
National Maritime Day poster (issuer not printed on the sheet)
Medium
Poster
Country
United States
Regime
Truman Administration
NARA
NAID 514306; 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) National Maritime Day poster (issuer not named). National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-811 (NAID 514306).

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.

Full record at propagandaarchive.org

For Trade, Travel, Defense is a poster for National Maritime Day, 22 May 1947. A ship marked U.S. Merchant Marine is loaded at a pier while dockworkers move crates. The sheet does not print its issuer; the National Archives holds it as NAID 514306.

The picture

A ship built for both passengers and cargo sits at a pier, with "U.S. Merchant Marine" on her bow. Dockworkers move crates. Above, a red banner carries the three-word slogan; below, a blue panel names the day.

for TRADE·TRAVEL·DEFENSE-

The AMERICAN MERCHANT MARINE!

NATIONAL MARITIME DAY

MAY 22, 1947

[on ship's bow:] U.S. MERCHANT MARINE

[on gangway:] [...]ARINE LINE

Transcription in the FRAME record, read from the image. The transcription gives only the end of the gangway lettering. Full record at propagandaarchive.org. NAID 514306, local id 44-PA-811, Record Group 44.

Who made it

That is not clear from the sheet. The record's maker line is "National Maritime Day poster (issuer not printed on the sheet)." The rights line treats it as a U.S. government work, and the National Archives files it with the World War II posters in Record Group 44. Of the lettering on the gangway, only "...ARINE LINE" survives.

Three words for a fleet

The archive tags the poster with glittering generalities. Trade, travel, and defense are three broad goods, strung together as the reason to care about merchant shipping. The sheet gives no tonnage, no jobs figure, and no request beyond attention. It is a celebration of an industry on its named day.

The pairing is worth a second look. Two of the three words describe private commerce: carrying goods and carrying people. The third is a public purpose. Setting them side by side makes a commercial fleet sound like part of the national defense. A reader can grant that ships matter in war and still notice that the poster asks for goodwill toward an industry without saying what, if anything, the public was being asked to pay for it.

Another ship print on this site takes a quieter tone: the 1927 Old Ironsides print shows the frigate Constitution under sail with no slogan at all, only two dates. The 1946 FHA counter card is another postwar sheet from Record Group 44 that promotes a program rather than asking for a sacrifice.

Sources

  • FRAME object record, For trade, travel, defense: the American Merchant Marine! National Maritime Day, May 22, 1947. Issuer not printed on the sheet.
  • U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, NAID 514306, local id 44-PA-811, catalog record, retrieved by the archive 4 October 2026. Rights as recorded: public domain (U.S. government work).