Some Southern Pacific wartime posters

Back more than 30 years ago, the Bookmine bookstore in Sacramento (long gone today) acquired a huge stash of “surplus” paper materials from the Southern Pacific General Shops in Sacramento. Among them were numerous posters, that SP provided to depots and other locations where the public would see them. Of dramatic quality as well as historical interest were some about wartime security. 

The first one I’ll show is obviously from the very beginning of World War II in the United States, as is evident from the included calendar, for May 1942, presumably the month it was released for use. At that time, there was a major focus on security. I especially like the upraised, admonitory finger.  

A similar message was prepared for Pullman passengers, printed in dark blue on white. I am told these were about five inches square. Obviously the central part of the text is the same. 

The idea that casual conversations were likely to be overheard by enemy agents, prevalent at the beginning of the war, soon disappeared. Warnings about keeping information to yourself, however, did continue. 

Next  comes a poster that I know was used through much of the war (often in rotation with other wartime posters). Travel by train was heavily used by the military, not only troop movements but movement of officers and senior officials among administrative assignments too. Like the other posters, this one is 16 x 21 inches in size.

There was a prohibition of taking photos of trains generally, though some railfans did continue to photograph, often surreptitiously. I thought it was interesting that there was equal concern about photos taken from the train. And like all these posters, patriotic red, and often also blue, was the format.

I showed two of these posters in the book I did with John Signor, Southern Pacific’s Coast Line Pictorial  (Signature Press, 2000), on page 56, but in black and white. 

I have always been intrigued by the ways corporations, including railroads, choose to present themselves to the public. Posters in depots are certainly an interesting example. And the specific wartime content of these particular ones is especially interesting.

Tony Thompson