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Fifty years of workplace safety posters courtesy of Geheugenvannederland.nl (Memory of the Netherlands)
1926, poster by Albert Hahn
Alcohol increases the risk of accidents
This is a belated follow-up to my April 2013 post Vintage Safety. I tried really hard not to include too many "missing finger" posters. [update: I swear to you that I wrote that fate-tempting sentence on Monday and then totally hurt my hand moving boxes the next day at work. I may never again look at this post.]
"Hoogspanning!" means "high voltage!" (see poster below).
1925, poster by Jacob Jansma
1925, poster by Jacob Jansma
Don't spit on the nuns*
2/28/2014 update: I figured this was not a nun, but liked the cheap joke. Adrian emailed to relate this message from his Dutch friend:
"The poster about spitting is quite interesting. In the first half of the 20th century lots of men chewed tobacco. And spitting was part of the chewing. It was unhygienic, I remember as a little boy the amounts of spit flying through the air! The nun is not a nun but a nurse in a twenties uniform. She is in the poster to indicate how unhygienic spitting is. Not a target!"
But really, please don't spit on the nuns.
1925, poster by Jacob Jansma
1925, poster by O. Roland
1928, poster by Herman Heyenbrock
1939, poster by E. Lukàcs
1939, poster by Gé Hurkmans
1939, poster by Strelitskie
1939, poster by W. Poll
1940, poster by E. Lukàcs
1940, poster by Jacob Jansma
Hugh Cook translates for us: "Do not grease or polish while machine is running."
1940
1941, poster by Strelitskie
1944
1945, poster by Renes / Jan Rot
Wash Your Fucking Hands
1945
1950–1959
Protect Your Eyes
1952, poster by R. Wormer
1955, poster by Jack de Rijk
1955, poster by Jack de Rijk
1958, poster by Ary Halsema
1959–1965
Put Them On
1959
1960, T. ten Geusendam
"High voltage!"
1960
1963
1969
This acorn guy shows up in a number of posters
1973, poster by Frans Mettes
1975, poster by Peretti
Help Reduce Noise
This post first appeared on Feb. 19, 2014 on 50 Watts