# Our Sorority Wasn't Very Smart to Snub Her (1942), a Galbraith cartoon the Marines reissued

Our sorority wasn't very smart to snub her is a 1942 newspaper cartoon by Galbraith, copyright NEA Service, reprinted on a Marine Corps Publicity Bureau handout. A smiling young woman walks arm in arm with two uniformed Marines while two other women stare (NAID 515156).

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      Our sorority wasn't very smart to snub her

      Our Sorority Wasn't Very Smart to Snub Her (1942), a Galbraith cartoon the Marines reissued
      A 1942 Galbraith cartoon, copyright NEA Service, on a Marine Corps Publicity Bureau sheet: a snubbed girl turns up with two Marine brothers. NAID 515156.

## Techniques named on the archive record

Transfer
      Date1942Made byMarine Corps Publicity Bureau; cartoon by Galbraith, NEA Service, Inc.MediumPosterCountryUnited StatesRegimeRoosevelt AdministrationNARANAID 515156; 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) Marine Corps Publicity Bureau; NEA Service, Inc.. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1491 (NAID 515156).
      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

  Our sorority wasn't very smart to snub her is a 1942 newspaper cartoon by Galbraith, copyright NEA Service, reprinted on a Marine Corps Publicity Bureau handout. A smiling young woman walks arm in arm with two uniformed Marines while two other women stare (NAID 515156).

## The gag

The joke is told by the sorority that guessed wrong. In the black-and-white cartoon, as the archive describes it, a young woman smiles as she walks between two Marines in uniform, holding an arm of each, and two other women watch in surprise. The caption is their confession.

OUR SORORITY WASN'T VERY SMART TO SNUB HER,

BUT HOW WERE WE TO KNOW SHE WOULD TURN UP WITH

TWO GOOD-LOOKING BROTHERS IN THE MARINES?

COPR. 1942 BY NEA SERVICE, INC. T. M. REG. U. S. PAT. OFF.

4-7

[signature: Galbraith]

[imprint: MCPB 99570 4-20-42 250]

Transcription in the FRAME record, read from the image and not independently checked. Full record at propagandaarchive.org. NAID 515156, local id 44-PA-1491, Record Group 44.

## Two credits on one sheet

The drawing carries a newspaper service's copyright, NEA Service, Inc., for 1942, and the signature Galbraith. The handout around it carries a Marine Corps Publicity Bureau imprint, MCPB 99570 4-20-42 250, which the record does not decode. The credits show a newspaper cartoon reissued by a recruiting office. The record names both makers, calls the issuer type military, and gives the purpose as "Recruit." Its rights line reads "Public domain (U.S. government work)" even though the cartoon itself bears a private copyright; this page reports the line as the record has it. The National Archives copy is in Record Group 44.

## What the uniform buys

The archive calls the technique faint and tags transfer: the Marine uniform carries social standing and admiration. Nobody in the cartoon talks about the war, duty, or danger. The uniform is a mark of status, and the payoff for wearing it lands on someone else. The young woman who was snubbed gains standing because of her brothers, and the sorority measures its mistake by how good-looking the brothers are.

It is a light piece. It is also a clear case of a recruiting office borrowing the newspaper funnies to sell enlistment as a social advantage, which is a different pitch from the duty and danger in a Navy sheet like The U.S.S. Marblehead comes home!. The women in the frame are spectators. For women in uniform on 1942 posters, see the Coast Guard's recruiting sheet Serve with SPARS and the War Department's security poster Silence Means Security.

## Sources

- FRAME object record, Our sorority wasn't very smart to snub her, 1942. Marine Corps Publicity Bureau; cartoon by Galbraith, NEA Service, Inc. Rights as recorded: public domain (U.S. government work).

- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, 44-PA-1491, NAID 515156, retrieved by the archive 4 October 2026.

Canonical: https://americanpropaganda.org/collection/our-sorority-wasnt-very-smart-to-snub-her-1942/