Posts Tagged ‘Rosie’
Antoinette “Toni” Miller (later Tamburo) worked as a clerk at the Higgins Aircraft facility in New Orleans. Like many other women who worked during WWII, Toni saved her pay stub as reminder of her wartime contributions. The pay stub in the gallery below dates from seventy years ago today. Toni worked over twenty hours of overtime and also put $11.25 of her total $88.11 toward war bonds. Following the war’s end, Toni was laid off from her job, only to be rehired months later in a reclassified position at a lower wage. Toni Tamburo devoted the bulk of her post-wartime career to teaching.
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- Toni (right) and friend at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans. Gift of Theresa Tamburo, 2013.072
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- Like many other women who worked during WWII, Toni Miller saved her pay stub as reminder of her wartime contributions. Toni worked over twenty hours of overtime and also put $11.25 of her total $88.11 toward war bonds. Gift of Theresa Tamburo, 2013.072.002
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- Antoinette “Toni” Miller (later Tamburo) worked as a clerk at the Higgins Aircraft facility in New Orleans. Gift of Theresa Tamburo,2013.072
Post by Curator Kimberly Guise.
US Army nurses riding in a jeep during WWII. Gift of Bob Harris, from the collection of The National World War II Museum. 2010.087.098.
From Rosie the Riveters and patriotic housewives to women serving in the armed forces, women were an indispensable part of the war effort during WWII. Learn more about the diverse roles that American women played during the war years with some of our educational resources at The National WWII Museum.
The Digital Collections of The National WWII Museum contains a variety of photographs and oral histories that show the range of experiences that women had during the war. Women like Martha Erickson and Rose Marie Weber worked in intelligence, with Erickson obtaining maps for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in Washington, DC, and Weber decoding messages in San Francisco as part of her job with the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service in the Navy). Other interviews on the Digital Collections site include the accounts of a female engineer, a Holocaust survivor, nurses, POWs, WASPs (Women’s Airforce Service Pilots) and one of the first female officers for the United States Marine Corps’ Women’s Reserve. These and other oral histories are great resources that teachers can use to introduce students to the many opportunities, as well as types of gender discrimination, that women experienced during the war.
For those who are curious to learn about what life was like for young school-aged women during WWII, See You Next Year! High School Yearbooks during WWII provides a fascinating glimpse into 1940s student life. By examining yearbooks as primary sources, students can make connections between their own lives and those of students from the past. Suggested lesson plans highlight aspects of student life like clubs, WWII slang, and wartime volunteering, and show what yearbooks can tell us about racial norms and gender expectations.
Teachers can also bring the experiences of WWII women into the classroom through our virtual field trip, “It’s OUR War , Too! Women in WWII.” Other free educational materials include downloadable lesson plans and fact sheets on women in the workforce; primary sources and personal stories contained within In Focus: Women and War, and more! Apart from Women’s History Month, the Museum’s resources can help educators to integrate women’s perspectives into their curricula year round.
Post by Megan Byrnes, K-12 Curriculum Coordinator
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- US Army nurses riding in a jeep during WWII. Gift of Bob Harris, from the collection of The National World War II Museum.
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- US Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) marching in formation. Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.
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- Page in 1944 yearbook from Schurz High School, Chicago, IL. Image taken from See You Next Year! High School Yearbooks from WWII, www.ww2yearbooks.org
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- J. Howard Miller's Rosie the Riveter. Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.
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- "We'll Have Lots to eat this winter, won't we Mother?" is an example of the kind of propaganda that promoted canning and other types of ways that American housewives could contribute to the war effort. Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.
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- Adah Mae Briscoe's WAC (Women's Army Corps) yearbook. Gift of Adah Briscoe Michaels, The National WWII Museum, 2001.045
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- WAC (Women's Army Corps) uniform of Adah Briscoe. Gift of Adah Briscoe Michaels, The National WWII Museum, 2001.045
The July 1943 issue of the Higgins Industries publication, the Eureka News Bulletin featured this cartoon, courtesy of the Ingalls News (Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, MS). Although Rosie the Riveter is now the most well known characterization of the female worker during WWII, other figures stood beside her (some clad in bathing suits). Bertha the Burner, Wendy the Welder and Jenny on the Job were just a few of the others.
Post by Curator Kimberly Guise.
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- Norman Rockwell's Rosie the Riveter.
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In her book, Our Mothers’ War: American Women at Home and at the Front During World War II, Emily Yellin quotes one ordnance worker as saying,” There is no glamour in pressing a lever five thousand times a day.”
This sentiment was illustrated on the cover of the 1943 Memorial Day issue of the Saturday Evening Post. On 29 May 1943, Norman Rockwell’s Rosie the Riveter made her debut. Rockwell’s inspiration was a 1942 song written by Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb, and recorded by Kay Kyser. Rockwell often used his neighbors as models for his works and his Rosie was a 19-year old telephone operator from Arlington, Vermont, Mary Doyle.
Rockwell’s Rosie is a true multi-tasker. She balances a rivet gun in her lap, eats a sandwich, and nonchalantly steps on a copy of Hitler’s Mein Kampf. Rockwell ultimately illustrated over 300 covers for the Saturday Evening Post with the “Rosie” issue becoming one of his most popular. The original painting would go on the auction block at Sotheby’s and would sell to a private collector for close to $5 million. Fan correspondence and images of Rockwell’s work can be seen here in the Collection Highlights from The Normal Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
J. Howard Miller’s “We Can Do It” propaganda poster is the image that is most often associated with Rosie the Riveter—a little thinner and a little more made-up.
Whichever image of Rosie you prefer, the idea of Rosie the Riveter continues to inspire and also continues to adapt.
Make your own Rosie poster (J. Howard Miller’s version) in our Kid’s Corner!
Post by Curator Kimberly Guise.
Elizabeth Collier of Nashville, Indiana won the right to represent her state at the Grand Opening of the US Freedom Pavilion: The Boeing Center. As part of her honor, she contributed a photo essay on the Rosies of Indiana and her work appeared in an exhibition that was on display during the month of January. In her post below, Elizabeth describes the steps that she took to create an award-winning documentary on female workers during World War II and the thrill of winning an award at the National History Day Contest.
Elizabeth Collier with Mary Louise (center) and Fran Carter (right)
June 14, 2012. The day that I made that coveted run to the awards stage for the first time. I was overjoyed that my documentary was taking me back to the museum where I had first started all of my research to share the story of the WWII Rosie the Riveter.
I created an Individual Senior documentary about the incredible works of the WWII Rosie the Riveters entitled, “The Will Behind The Drill: The Revolution and Reforms of the WWII Rosie the Riveter.” My research had taken me to The National WWII Museum’s website, and I had found that they were more than willing to help students from around the country. As my parents and I made the trip to New Orleans, I met and researched with Museum curator, Kimberly Guise. As I learned about the women workers at the Higgins Plant in New Orleans, I also was blessed with the chance to interview the ladies of the National Rosie the Riveter Association in Birmingham, AL. Fran Carter, founder of the Association, told me so many stories of her days as a Riveter and how she continues to work with others like me to heed and remember their lessons. I was also able to interview several Riveters in my home state. Mary Harris from Nashville, In. greatly influenced me and my research, and shared stories of her past that she hadn’t thought of in years that brought a smile to her face. Dr. Elinor Ostrom, Nobel Prize laureate of Economics, also added insight to my documentary and shared her love of the work done by the WWII era women workers. (more…)
Seventy years ago, J. Howard Miller’s poster “Rosie the Riveter” poster debuted. The Westinghouse Corporation commissioned the artwork and the campaign, designed to spur production among women workers, was supposed to run for two weeks throughout their factories. Miller’s image has endured and evolved over the years, inspiring new audiences and becoming a symbol of empowerment for women.
Post by Curator Kimberly Guise. 
