A 1942 poster published by the United States of America frames a portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt in a red V, under rows of aircraft and two production goals: 60,000 war planes in 1942 and 125,000 in 1943, over his facsimile signature (NAID 44268347).
What the sheet prints
A red V frames Roosevelt's portrait. Above it, rows of aircraft silhouettes shrink into the distance. Two goals are printed, one for each year. The figures use a period as the thousands separator.
In 1942
America Will Build
60.000
WAR PLANES
In 1943
America Will Build
125.000
WAR PLANES
[facsimile signature:] Franklin D Roosevelt
PUBLISHED BY THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Who issued it
The imprint says only "Published by the United States of America." The archive's maker line is the United States Government, with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and no agency named. The National Archives holds it with the World War II foreign posters in Record Group 44. The catalog gives the audience as mixed and the purpose as persuading or winning support. The record does not say where this English sheet was posted.
The archive holds versions of the same design in other languages, among them French, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish, Afrikaans and Chinese editions, and a Persian sheet whose first figure is 90,000. This page treats the English sheet only.
How to read it
Two tags in the record cover the sheet: transfer and card stacking. The transfer is the portrait and signature, which lend the president's authority to the numbers. The card stacking is the numbers themselves: two round figures with no source, no schedule and no word on what was built so far.
A production goal is a promise, and a poster can print one. What this sheet does is print it as a fact in the future tense, "America Will Build," and sign it. A reader in 1942 had no way to check it from the sheet. That is a fair thing to say about a target, not an accusation that it was false; the record says nothing about whether the goals were met, and this page does not either.
Roosevelt's signature also appears on the Office of War Information's Poster No. 13, which quotes Roosevelt on the battle of production, and on Books Are Weapons in the War of Ideas. The Roosevelt administration essay sets out which wartime offices held which powers.
Sources
- FRAME object record, In 1942 America Will Build 60,000 War Planes / In 1943 America Will Build 125,000 War Planes, 1942. United States Government (President Franklin D. Roosevelt; no agency named).
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Foreign Posters, 44-PF-900a, NAID 44268347, retrieved by the archive 3 October 2026. Rights as recorded: public domain (US federal government work).
