Women at Work: The World War II Aircraft Factory Photographs of Alfred T. Palmer

Women at Work: The World War II Aircraft Factory Photographs of Alfred T. Palmer

Shortly after the United States entered World War II in 1941, the nation quickly mobilized for war and nearly all able-bodied men under the age of forty-five volunteered or were drafted into the armed forces. This left a major gap in the nation’s industrial workforce, just at the time when increased war production was desperately needed. In order to fill these ranks the government began to promote the hiring of women as industrial workers. Amid initial opposition to the idea, the Office of War Information (OWI) was created to produce promotional posters, advertisements, and news stories to gain much needed support for these and other home-front war efforts. In 1942, Alfred T. Palmer, the official photographer of the OWI, began visiting aviation production plants across the country and photographing their female workers.

Palmer’s World War II factory photographs of women aviation workers were created for the OWI between 1942 and 1943, and they comprise some of his best and most well-known work. Women at Work presents twenty-one of these photographs from the collections of the Library of Congress. These compelling, high-contrast, color prints depict their subjects as they were; focused and determined to play an important part in the production of military aircraft to win the war in the air. These images also serve to document the rapid technological advancement of war-time aviation and aircraft production, which reached an astounding total of 324,750 aircraft.

Palmer’s World War II factory photographs of women aviation workers were created for the OWI between 1942 and 1943, and they comprise some of his best and most well-known work. Women at Work presents twenty-one of these photographs from the collections of the Library of Congress. These compelling, high-contrast, color prints depict their subjects as they were; focused and determined to play an important part in the production of military aircraft to win the war in the air. These images also serve to document the rapid technological advancement of war-time aviation and aircraft production, which reached an astounding total of 324,750 aircraft.

[top inset image]
Office of War Information recruitment poster with a worker
finishing the bombardier nose section of a Douglas-built
Boeing B-17F heavy bomber at the Douglas Aircraft Company
plant, Long Beach, California  1942
Alfred T. Palmer (1906–1993)
photograph
Library of Congress
LC-USZC4-5600
R2012.2601.022

[bottom inset image]
Alfred T. Plamer  c. 1940
photograph
Courtesy of Julia Palmer Gennert
R2012.2602.001

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