This is one of many posters produced during World War II by the National Safety Council (NSC), headquartered in Chicago. The council had been founded in 1913 with the aim of eliminating preventable accidents and deaths in the workplace and home, as well as on the roads and in communities, and it was to play a critical role in occupational safety during World War II. On August 18, 1940, long before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt directed the organization to lead a campaign against workplace accidents that might delay victory (the United States was supplying munitions to Britain to help in the fight against Germany). These designs were part of the NSC’s expanded safety program, one necessitated by the fact that many new workers were entering the workforce to replace those who had left for military service. A large number of these had no or little experience in the workplace, among them women and people from rural areas, so the risk of injury was potentially very high. The worker with his toolkit looks toward a leafless winter tree, suggesting the bleak future that awaits him if he is not careful.