JF Ptak Science Books LLC  Post 466

There’s nothing that shouts “WRONG” with greater voice than images like this.  Like pornography and art, things that are just plain wrong are instantly recognizable.  And this, my dear reader, is a fine example of that thinking. Anti-Gas Protective Helmet for Babies, Manual of Instructions was prepared for the Office of the Director of Civil Air Raid Precautions of Ottawa, Canada, and published in 1943.  I’m not sure that the image of the nurse in the gas mask isn’t as disturbing, but the two of them together is just too much.  

I wasn’t aware of the gas attack preparations in Canada–the situation was entirely different in Britain, where everyone was required to own one, and by 1940 more than 38 million had been distributed to the population.  But the planning was underway in Ottawa in ’43 for the worst, as removed and distant from the war as just about any other place on earth–but the Air Raid Precautions people pulled no punches in their hearts and minds campaign, and I’m sure that it was very effective.  This little pamphlet certainly caught my attention.