What World War II posters lacked in subtlety, they made up for in catchy, dogmatic language. Just before Uncle Sam was urging YOU to "Buy War Bonds!" and "Be a Nurse!"

Gregg Arlington was creating similarly propagandistic illustrations about books and reading.
"Don't gum up a book," his images instruct deviant young readers, and, "A book mark would be better."
Check out these lovely and peculiar posters:

All images are from the Library of Congress. Special thanks to Ig Publishing, who dug up these images and featured one on their fall 2012 catalogue cover.


All seven posters can be viewed at HuffPost