<P> After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government called upon manufacturers to produce greater amounts of war goods . The workplace atmosphere at large factories was often tense because of resentment built up between management and labor unions throughout the 1930s . Directors of companies such as General Motors (GM) sought to minimize past friction and encourage teamwork . In response to a rumored public relations campaign by the United Auto Workers union, GM quickly produced a propaganda poster in 1942 showing both labor and management rolling up their sleeves, aligned toward maintaining a steady rate of war production . The poster read, "Together We Can Do It!" and "Keep' Em Firing!" In creating such posters, corporations wished to increase production by tapping popular pro-war sentiment, with the ultimate goal of preventing the government from exerting greater control over production . </P> <P> In 1942, Pittsburgh artist J. Howard Miller was hired by Westinghouse Electric's internal War Production Coordinating Committee, through an advertising agency, to create a series of posters to display to the company's workers . The intent of the poster project was to raise worker morale, to reduce absenteeism, to direct workers' questions to management, and to lower the likelihood of labor unrest or a factory strike . Each of the more than 42 posters designed by Miller was displayed in the factory for two weeks, then replaced by the next one in the series . Most of the posters featured men; they emphasized traditional roles for men and women . One of the posters pictured a smiling male manager with the words "Any Questions About Your Work?...Ask your Supervisor ." </P> <P> No more than 1,800 copies of the 17 - by - 22 - inch (559 by 432 mm) "We Can Do It!" poster were printed . It was not initially seen beyond several Westinghouse factories in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the midwestern U.S., where it was scheduled to be displayed for two five - day work weeks starting Monday, February 15, 1943 . The targeted factories were making plasticized helmet liners impregnated with Micarta, a phenolic resin invented by Westinghouse . Mostly women were employed in this enterprise, which yielded some 13 million helmet liners over the course of the war . The slogan "We Can Do It!" was probably not interpreted by the factory workers as empowering to women alone; they had been subjected to a series of paternalistic, controlling posters promoting management authority, employee capability and company unity, and the workers would likely have understood the image to mean "Westinghouse Employees Can Do It", all working together . The upbeat image served as gentle propaganda to boost employee morale and keep production from lagging . The pictured red, white and blue clothing was a subtle call to patriotism, one of the frequent tactics of corporate war production committees . </P> <P> During World War II, the "We Can Do It!" poster was not connected to the 1942 song "Rosie the Riveter", nor to the widely seen Norman Rockwell painting called Rosie the Riveter that appeared on the cover of the Memorial Day issue of the Saturday Evening Post, May 29, 1943 . The Westinghouse poster was not associated with any of the women nicknamed "Rosie" who came forward to promote women working for war production on the home front . Rather, after being displayed for two weeks in February 1943 to some Westinghouse factory workers, it disappeared for nearly four decades . Other "Rosie" images prevailed, often photographs of actual workers . The Office of War Information geared up for a massive nationwide advertising campaign to sell the war, but "We Can Do It!" was not part of it . </P>

Where was the we can do it poster made