This poster, summoning volunteers to participate in civilian defense on the eve of the entry of the United States into World War II, was issued by the government’s Division of Information (DWI), part of the Office for Emergency Management, a federal agency created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in May 1940. It was designed by the Swiss-born photographer and graphic designer Herbert Matter who had developed some of the earliest and most innovative examples of photomontage while still in Switzerland and pioneered an abstract style often featuring extreme contrasts of scale. His travel posters for the Swiss National Tourist Office were among the first to incorporate purely photographic imagery. As this poster, combining the modernist visual language of photomontage with American patriotic motifs indicates, he brought these design concepts and a knowledge of European avant-garde styles to the United States when he emigrated there in 1936, working for museums, magazines, and other organizations, as well as wartime government agencies. The DWI was replaced in June 1942 by the Office of War Information and its promotional materials became more traditional in style in line with mainstream American tastes of the day.