Recruitment poster featuring Navy Cross recipient Dorie Miller: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This is a color poster depicting an artistic rendering of Dorie Miller, center, from the chest up, wearing a white sailor's cap, collared white shirt, with blue tie. He has a Navy Cross medal hanging on his left side of his chest. In the right background, multiple ships with smoke coming off of them can be seen in the distance. Above the depiction of Dorie Miller is text that reads ["above and beyond the call of duty"] in off-white type. In the bottom left corner black type, reads [DORIE MILLER / Received the Navy Cross/ at Pearl Harbor. May 27, 1942]. The artist's signature is in black ink, on the right side, right above the figure's right shoulder, reading [David / Stone / Martin]. Production information in the bottom left corner, in black type, reads [OWI Poster No. 68. Additional copies may be obtained upon request from the Division of Public Inquiries, Office of War Information, Washington, D.C.]. In the bottom right text reads [U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1943-O-530929]. The entire image is surrounded by a thin beige border, backed by canvas.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1943
• Printed by: United States Office of War Information, American, 1942 - 1945
• Illustrated by: David Stone Martin, American, 1913 - 1992
• Subject of: Ck3c Doris Miller, American, 1919 - 1943
• Type: posters
• Medium: ink on paper on canvas
• Dimensions: H x W: 31 5/8 × 24 in. (80.3 × 61 cm)
• Place depicted: Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Advertising
• Topic: Men
• Topic: Military
• Topic: World War II
• Object number: 2014.320
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The displayed image also has an explicit CC0 designation. The underlying object's rights statement is: Public Domain Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.