Remembering Rosie the Riveter - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Remembering Rosie the Riveter

Hannah ChapmanSlide2

The Rosie We Know

Rosie the Riveter is an image of a strong woman who fought for her country and at the same time paved a path for herself in the workforce.Slide3

The Unknown

Created for

Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing

Westinghouse did not employ riveters

The work does indicate “Rosie” at all

Internal bulletin board work

Displayed for two weeks (Feb 15-28 1943)Slide4

Recovery from the Archival Abyss

Created by J. Howard Miller

Not widely seen

Image part of

a large series

Rediscovered and published in 1982

Washington Post Magazine

article

Featured Geraldine Hoff Doyle, Doyle unaware until the 1980’sDoyle worked briefly as a metal presser at an inkster in Michigan Slide5

How the Real Rosie Began

A song written by

Redd

Evans and John Jacob Loeb entitled “Rosie the Riveter”Performed by many groups over the years, but made popular in versions by The Four Vagabonds and James Kern “Kay” Kaiser

The Four Vagabonds Version

1942 song, released early ‘43 Slide6

Real Original Rosie?

The song was based on Rosalind P. Walter

Rosie (Rosalind) was actually a riveter

Returned to life after the war as homemaker

Prospered on the wealth of her family

Not the traditional Rosie story as it is remembered todaySlide7

Rockwell’s Rosie

Norman Rockwell created this Rosie

Impacted by the song, just months after May 29, 1943

Clearly an image of Rosie the Riveter

3 million copies a week, plus some due to Rockwell’s statusSlide8

Powerful Elements of Rockwell’s Rosie

Uncanny resemblance to Michelangelo's Isaiah Slide9

An enemy is indicated and war is depictedSlide10

Masculine and Feminine

Rouge and Lipstick

Huge riveter

Eating

Resting (not on the job)

Loafers

“Brawny and dirty looking”

Angelic feminizing halo

Compact and handkerchiefSlide11

Rockwell Liberty Girl

Just 3 months after Rosie was published

Liberty Girl to identify that all jobs were war jobs for women

Liberty Girl did not have the same lasting popularitySlide12

More Real Rosies

Spring Up

June 1943 Rose

Bonavita

and her riveting partner or bucker, Jennie Florio set record of 900 holes and 3300 rivets in one 6 hour night shift

“The Real Rosie”

Rose Will Monroe a riveter from Michigan starred in War Bond promotional clips and a movie, in both she was portrayed as Rosie Slide13

Post War Life

Rose Will Monroe

Seamstress

Beauty Shop

O

wner

Taxi and Bus Driver

Real Estate Agent

Pilot Slide14

Wages v. Patriotism

Undoubtedly a bit of both, yet wages played a tremendous role

Wages were enticing

$35 weekly

 war plants

$25 weekly  manufacturing

$15 weekly  sales clerk

Smithsonian Oral History Clip 1:55Slide15

3 Types of Rosies

Women who were already in the workforce and who remained in it afterwards, changed positions to higher paying and patriotic defense jobs

Generally

lower class and had to work to support

families

Women who had worked in the past, but lost their jobs to the Depression

During

the Depression women were discouraged from trying to have jobs, a lot of women who had jobs in another wartime, WWI

First time workers

Primary targets of ad campaigningSlide16

Black Rosies

Black women had for the most part already been on the workforce

Wartime presented better job opportunities and higher wages

Although black women represented

Rosies

they were not depicted in the propagandaSlide17

Post War Jobs?

Once men returned from the war women were encouraged to head back home

Higher wages did not continue

Baltimore: $50 per week 1944, $37 in 1946

Rose Will Monroe – continued working in just about every capacity (rare case)

Most of the iconic Rosie women returned to family lifeSlide18

Rosie Truly?

During the mid-70’s to mid-80’s and 6 or 7 years ago, surges of scholarship denying the symbolic feminist nature of the Rosie image came to fruition

Criticizing both the origins of the Miller “Rosie” and the legitimacy of the propaganda being reclaimed as a

women in the workforce movement Slide19

Rosie the Riveter Today

Rosie, the icon and the ideology, represents a figure that sparked rapid growth in women joining the workforce and in brand new capacities

One thing is for certain, levels of female employment in America have never fallen below the levels at the beginning of the war Slide20

Commemoration

Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park

Richmond, California on the site of a former Kaiser shipbuilding location sits the “Rosie the Riveter memorial”

Dedicated Oct. 14, 2000 Slide21

Rosie in Archives

Many of the Rosie the Riveter Collections are

o

ral histories describing the experiences in individual

Rosies

Eastern Oklahoma County Regional History Center – Over 60 oral histories

J. Howard Miller’s image has ranked in the top ten requested historic images from the national archivesSlide22

Rosie Organizations

American Rosie the Riveter Association (ARRA)

Rosies

Rosebuds

Rivets

All of ARRA’s merchandise features J. Howard Miller’s “Rosie”Slide23

The Many Faces of Rosie

Rosie has taken on many roles being a popular and unregulated copyright-wise imageSlide24

Questions:

Is Rosie the Riveter still a positive symbol for working women to identify with?

What are the apparent differences between the Rockwell and the Miller Rosie?

Should archivists be actively seeking out more information on this iconic Rosie ideal rather than focusing on oral histories?

After seeing this presentation who is Rosie to you?

Working class women, wartime work only middle class housewives, anyone involved with war efforts, women who worked in men’s jobs

Do the working class women in wartimes have a claim on the title

of Rosie?

Do you think the Rosie praising reflectors seek to cover up or ignore the financial gains of taking a wartime defense position?

Why do you think Rosie the Riveter’s image has been taken and transformed so readily in the recent past?