Hoogspanning!: More Dutch Safety Posters

Fifty years of workplace safety posters courtesy of Geheugenvannederland.nl (Memory of the Netherlands)





1926, poster by Albert Hahn

Alcohol increases the risk of accidents



This is a belated follow-up to my April 2013 post Vintage Safety. I tried really hard not to include too many "missing finger" posters. [update: I swear to you that I wrote that fate-tempting sentence on Monday and then totally hurt my hand moving boxes the next day at work. I may never again look at this post.]

"Hoogspanning!" means "high voltage!" (see poster below).

1925, poster by Jacob Jansma

1925, poster by Jacob Jansma

Don't spit on the nuns*

2/28/2014 update: I figured this was not a nun, but liked the cheap joke. Adrian emailed to relate this message from his Dutch friend:



"The poster about spitting is quite interesting. In the first half of the 20th century lots of men chewed tobacco. And spitting was part of the chewing. It was unhygienic, I remember as a little boy the amounts of spit flying through the air! The nun is not a nun but a nurse in a twenties uniform. She is in the poster to indicate how unhygienic spitting is. Not a target!"



But really, please don't spit on the nuns.

1925, poster by Jacob Jansma

1925, poster by O. Roland

1928, poster by Herman Heyenbrock

1939, poster by E. Lukàcs

1939, poster by Gé Hurkmans

1939, poster by Strelitskie

1939, poster by W. Poll

1940, poster by E. Lukàcs

1940, poster by Jacob Jansma

Hugh Cook translates for us: "Do not grease or polish while machine is running."

1940

1941, poster by Strelitskie

1944

1945, poster by Renes / Jan Rot

Wash Your Fucking Hands

1945

1950–1959

Protect Your Eyes

1952, poster by R. Wormer

1955, poster by Jack de Rijk

1955, poster by Jack de Rijk

1958, poster by Ary Halsema

1959–1965

Put Them On

1959

1960, T. ten Geusendam

"High voltage!"

1960

1963

1969

This acorn guy shows up in a number of posters

1973, poster by Frans Mettes

1975, poster by Peretti

Help Reduce Noise

This post first appeared on Feb. 19, 2014 on 50 Watts