Artist Unknown: Buy a Part of Our Jeep. Ca. 1942. This unusual poster was specifically printed to be hung in class rooms. It has two distinct parts. The top portion shows an endless stream of brand new jeeps pouring out of the factory where they were made and headed straight for a fighting front somewhere around the world. The bottom part shows blueprint photos of 19 different important parts of a typical jeep. Every poster printed was accompanied by a sheet of photos of each of the individual parts. As students contributed money to buy a part, the photo of that part was pasted over the corresponding blueprint part on the poster’s lower half. This “game” went on until the students had bought an entire jeep. What’s so amazing about this scheme is that the 19 different parts shown on each poster cost the kids only $1,165 for an entire jeep! The cost of each piece is astounding: an engine: $225, a bumper: $4, a muffler: $5, an instrument panel: $4, an entire frame: $65, a carburetor: $12, a transmission: $50 and so on. It’s astounding, especially when you consider that a Jeep, made by Chrysler today, can easily cost $40,000 or $50,000 if not more depending on various high price options. During the war jeeps were made by Willys-Overland Motors which makes this one of their posters. 2019 marks Jeep’s 75th Anniversary. All told 637,000 jeeps were built during World War II.
