A 1945 War Department photo poster shows a woman and a man in civilian work clothes with Army badges, a tinted soldier and a chart of service ribbons behind them. A panel shows five War Department Civilian Service Award ribbons, and the sheet also prints "YOUR CAMPAIGN RIBBONS" (NAID 515453).
Two workers and a soldier behind them
The sheet is built from photographs. In front, a woman and a man in civilian work clothes wear Army identification badges. Behind them are a soldier, tinted, and a chart of service ribbons. A separate panel shows the civilian awards.
SOMETHING MONEY CAN'T BUY...
Service Ribbons
OF SERVICE MEDALS
[small ribbon captions on the background chart: illegible]
WAR DEPARTMENT CIVILIAN SERVICE AWARDS
ARMY SERVICE FORCES
ARMY AIR FORCES
ARMY GROUND FORCES
OFFICE OF SECRETARY OF WAR
GENERAL STAFF
YOUR CAMPAIGN RIBBONS
[badge on the man's shirt:] ARMY ... DEPOT
[badge on the woman's blouse:] ARMY
[imprint:] P-X-27-SPB-11-15-45-85M
Who it was for
The issuer is the War Department, classed as military. The audience is recorded as the domestic public and the purpose as "Commemorate." The themes are the home front, war and the military, and labor. Under the panel heading the sheet prints five names: the Army Service Forces, the Army Air Forces, the Army Ground Forces, the Office of Secretary of War, and the General Staff. The man's badge is transcribed as ARMY ... DEPOT and the woman's as ARMY.
The record does not decode the imprint string at the foot, and this page leaves it as printed.
What the slogan does
The archive tags glittering generalities and transfer. "Something money can't buy" is a value claim with nothing to measure. The soldier and the ribbon chart behind the workers lend military prestige to civilian work, and the words "YOUR CAMPAIGN RIBBONS" give a soldier's term to the civilian awards, as the catalog title reads it.
An award is offered, not imposed, and a government may thank the people it employs. The slogan does carry a point the poster never argues: that recognition sits in a different category from pay. The sheet says nothing about pay at all.
Other War Department sheets of 1945 on this site include the security notice Urgent Notice and the Know Your Enemy: Japan title card. The War Manpower Commission's Get the Jap and Get It Over! made a 1945 job appeal to civilians with a slur in the headline.
Sources
- FRAME object record, Something money can't buy... Your campaign ribbons, 1945. War Department. Source classed as openly identified.
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, 44-PA-1780, NAID 515453, retrieved by the archive 4 October 2026. Rights as recorded: public domain (U.S. government work).
