# Life magazine, June 14, 1943: the High School Graduation cover

The June 14, 1943 cover of Life magazine, published by Time Inc., shows a smiling young woman in a white graduation gown and cap beside a young man in a dark gown, captioned High School Graduation. The National Archives holds it with its World War II posters (NAID 515281).

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- Life magazine, June 14, 1943: the High School Graduation cover

      Life, June 14, 1943, cover (High School Graduation)

      Life magazine, June 14, 1943: the High School Graduation cover
      Life's June 14, 1943 cover: two high school graduates in cap and gown, black and white, price 10 cents. Held in the National Archives poster file, NAID

## Techniques named on the archive record

Plain folks
      DateJune 14, 1943Made byLife magazine (Time Inc.)MediumOtherCountryUnited StatesRegimeRoosevelt AdministrationNARANAID 515281; Record Group 44SourceIdentified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they areSourceU.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters , retrieved October 4, 2026SourcePublic domain (U.S. government work) Life magazine (Time Inc.). National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1616 (NAID 515281).
      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

  The June 14, 1943 cover of Life magazine, published by Time Inc., shows a smiling young woman in a white graduation gown and cap beside a young man in a dark gown, captioned High School Graduation. The National Archives holds it with its World War II posters (NAID 515281).

## The cover

A magazine cover, not a government sheet. It is in black and white. A young woman in a white gown and cap smiles beside a young man in a dark gown, and the caption names the occasion. Everything else printed on the cover is masthead, date, price, and a library mark.

LIFE

HIGH SCHOOL

GRADUATION

U. S. Information Service Library

JUNE 14, 1943 10 CENTS

YEARLY SUBSCRIPTION $4.50

REG. U. S. PAT. OFF.

44-PA-1616

Transcription in the FRAME record, read from the image and not independently checked. Full record at propagandaarchive.org. NAID 515281, local id 44-PA-1616, Record Group 44.

## Why a magazine cover is in a poster file

Time Inc. published Life, and the cover carries no government agency's name. The copy the archive reproduces is held by the National Archives in Record Group 44, the World War II poster file, as item 44-PA-1616. The transcription shows a "U. S. Information Service Library" line and the 44-PA number on the cover itself. The record does not say how this copy came into government hands or how it was used there, and this page does not guess.

The archive gives the issuer type as media, the audience as the domestic public, and the purpose as reassurance. Its themes are the home front and media and information.

## How to read it

The archive tags one technique, plain folks, and calls it faint. That is a fair reading. There is no slogan, no enemy, and no request. Two ordinary students finish school in a year of war, and the cover lets that stand as the news.

A free press choosing to run a calm, ordinary picture is not the same thing as a government ordering one. Nothing in the record shows that any agency asked for this cover. It belongs in a study of wartime persuasion because the archive reads its effect as reassurance, and a private magazine could supply that on its own judgment. Compare the government's own home-front sheets from the same year, such as Use It Up - Wear It Out - Make It Do!, which do make a request. For young men, the Army's own appeal ran on posters like the 1942 Men of 18 and 19. The Roosevelt administration essay describes the press the government worked beside.

## Sources

- FRAME object record, Life, June 14, 1943, cover (High School Graduation). Life magazine (Time Inc.).

- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, 44-PA-1616, NAID 515281, retrieved by the archive 4 October 2026. Rights as recorded: public domain (U.S. government work).

Canonical: https://americanpropaganda.org/collection/life-cover-high-school-graduation-1943/