It’s no secret that the U.S government encouraged both agricultural and industrial production during World War II in an effort to support the war effort abroad and ignite the economy at home.

As part of the effort – a well trained and enthusiastic labor force was presented as the pinnacle of success. Many posters encouraged workers to be careful with how much time they miss away from work, and to take shorter breaks.

However, interestingly, many posters also encouraged work safety and proper work methods in an effort to increase efficiency in production. There are no conclusive statistics whether this campaign had a profound impact on war time production, however, it did ferment a culture of patriotism through labor. The effort was complete with its very own mascot, Axey Dent the Cartlin, a mischievous creature, responsible for a variety of work place accidents (to be avoided, of course).

Check out some of the following examples, made available online by the National Archives.