"Navy Day October 27th" Poster by Matt Murphey, 1940

Offered is an original U.S. Navy propaganda poster advertising "Navy Day." Below a large image of a U.S. battleship is block text reading "Navy Day, October 27th." The poster dates to 1940, shortly before the American entry into World War II. The poster highlights an impressive depiction of a column of U.S. battleships within a red border with small white anchors. The printed signature of U.S. Navy artist Matt Murphey appears at the bottom right of the image, while the bottom edge of the poster bears the printing line: "NRB - 27919 - 8-5-40 - 18M." Each of the ships depicted in the image appear to feature cage masts, indicating that the artist was working from a reference image taken prior to the modernization of the U.S. battleship force in the late 1920s to the early 1930s. The first “Navy Day “ was celebrated on October 27, 1922. October 27, 1922 was suggested by the Navy League to recognize Theodore Roosevelt’s birthday. Roosevelt had been an Assistant Secretary of the Navy and sup