WWII Posters…

One of the ‘iconic’ posters really isn’t… And it wasn’t called Rosie the Riveter either…

rosie the riveter

 

It was an internal poster for Westinghouse…

J Howard Miller is believed to have done the poster based on this photo of Geraldine Hoff.

 He lived in Pittsburgh during the war. His work came to the attention of the Westinghouse Company (later, the Westinghouse War Production Co-Ordinating Committee), and he was hired to create a series of posters. The posters were sponsored by the company’s internal War Production Co-Ordinating Committee, one of the hundreds of labor-management committees organized under the supervision of the national War Production Board.

Geraldine_Hoff rosie the riveter

We Can Do It!” is an American wartime poster produced by J. Howard Miller in 1943 for Westinghouse Electric as an inspirational image to boost worker morale. The poster is generally thought to be based on a black-and-white wire service photograph taken of a Michigan factory worker named Geraldine Hoff.

The poster was seen very little during World War II. It was rediscovered in the early 1980s and widely reproduced in many forms, often called “We Can Do It!” but also called “Rosie the Riveter” after the iconic figure of a strong female war production worker. The “We Can Do It!” image was used to promote feminism and other political issues beginning in the 1980s. The image made the cover of the Smithsonian magazine in 1994 and was fashioned into a US first-class mail stamp in 1999. It was incorporated in 2008 into campaign materials for several American politicians, and was reworked by an artist in 2010 to celebrate the first woman becoming prime minister of Australia. The poster is one of the ten most-requested images at the National Archives and Records Administration.

After its rediscovery, observers often assumed that the image was always used as a call to inspire women workers to join the war effort. However, during the war the image was strictly internal to Westinghouse, displayed only during February 1943, and was not for recruitment but to exhort already-hired women to work harder. Feminists and others have seized upon the uplifting attitude and apparent message to remake the image into many different forms, including self empowerment, campaign promotion, advertising, and parodies.

The ‘real’ Rosie the Riveter painting/cover was done by Norman Rockwell for the May 29, 1943 issue of the Saturday Evening Post.

norman-rockwell-rosie-the-riveter-saturday-evening-post-cover-may-29-1943

Comments

WWII Posters… — 14 Comments

    • Thanks for the link, Ed. Preserving Willow Run is a worthy cause.

  1. Art critics dismissed Rockwell’s paintings – they referred to him as a calendar artist and said his work was corny. I always liked his work and the Rosie the Riveter Post cover is magnificent!

  2. Rockwell’s Rosie probably wasn’t “Pretty Enough” for the War Effort. Just look at all the other Posters with Females on them that were used.

    Sexist Bastards.

  3. Ed/Buck- One hopes, but in this day and age??? With the current generations??? I dunno…

    Mrs.C- Good point!

    WSF- That it is…

    CP- Bad… snicker…

    Les- Good point!

    Rev- Amen!

  4. Another case where the progressives have rewritten history in order to suit their needs. Both poster and magazine cover are great graphics, though.

  5. The We Can Do It poster gal lived in north Louisiana for a time. My mom has a copy of the poster, along with a photo of the woman, taken sometime before her death in 2010. Ms. Hoff married a dentist named Doyle after the war and had six children.

  6. Dammit- Missed your comment, sorry… :-0

    Euripides- Good point!

    Paw- Didn’t know that. Interesting, thanks!!!