A poster asking workers not to lose their Social Security cards

A poster catalogued at 1941 and signed by Ralph Patterson shows a cartoon everyman holding up a Social Security card made out to "J. Wilbur Worker," with three reasons not to lose it. It says replacing 1,861,871 lost cards the year before cost Uncle Sam the price of 550 jeeps. NAID 514504.

What the sheet prints

A cheerful man in a polka-dot bow tie holds up his card like a ticket. The card is filled out for "J. Wilbur Worker." Three panels give the reasons to keep it.

hold on TO YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY CARD

don't lose it, BECAUSE

YOU MAY NEED IT ANY DAY, ESPECIALLY IF YOU TAKE ANOTHER JOB

IT TAKES TIME TO GET A DUPLICATE

REPLACING 1,861,871 LOST CARDS LAST YEAR COST UNCLE SAM THE PRICE OF 550 JEEPS

[imprint: ES-96]

[signature: Ralph Patterson]

Who issued it

The sheet itself prints no agency, only the code ES-96 and the artist's signature. The National Archives rights line, as the archive records it, names the Social Security Board. The poster is in Record Group 44 as 44-PA-997. The 1941 date is the catalog's; the sheet prints no year, and its comparison to jeeps is the only clue to its moment. FRAME lists the purpose as "mobilize or secure compliance" and tags plain folks and a mild fear appeal.

How to read it

The fear here is small: a delay, a cost. The persuasion is mostly in the friendly man and in the price tag. Losing your card is turned from a private nuisance into a waste of public money that could have bought military vehicles. That is a neat trick, and a revealing one. A clerical problem at a federal agency is presented as the citizen's duty to fix.

The poster is also frank about something worth noticing. It tells the worker he "may need it any day, especially if you take another job." In other words, a federal number had become something a person carried from employer to employer. The sheet treats that as settled and simply asks people to be careful with the card. A reader can agree that losing it is a nuisance and still notice that a federal record had become part of ordinary working life.

A separate banner from the Federal Security Agency, catalogued the same year, prints only the words "Social Security" between two seals (NAID 515444).