"Reach Your Boy Overseas" WWII Vmail Poster by Jes William Schlaikjer (1942)

This poster encourages friends and family to use "V-mail" (short for Victory Mail) when sending letters to troops overseas. V-Mail was a hybrid mail process used by the United States during the Second World War as the primary and secure method to correspond with soldiers stationed abroad.

To reduce the cost of transferring an original letter through the military postal system, Eastman Kodak entered a contract with the U.S. War Department to use Recordak machines to process V-mail. This process converted letters, after being censored, to thumbnail-sized images in negative microfilm. Upon arrival at their destination, the negatives would be blown up to 60% of their original size, 4 1/2 inches by 5 3/16 inches and printed.

V-mail ensured that thousands of tons of shipping space could be reserved for war materials. The 37 mail bags required to carry 150,000 one-page letters could be replaced by a single mail sack. The weight of that same amount of mail was reduced dramatically from 2,575 pounds to a mere 45.