We Can Do It Poster History
The we can do it poster was displayed only to westinghouse employees in the midwest during a two week period in february 1943 then it disappeared for nearly four decades.
We can do it poster history. The we was understood to mean we women uniting all. But in the 1980s miller s we can do it poster resurfaced with a bang and was widely reprinted on t shirts mugs pins and many other products. For years the we can do it poster colloquially known as rosie the riveter has served and still does as an iconic symbol of strength motivation and is closely connected with feminism. She represents all the women who went to work during world war 2 to replace the men in the jobs they left vacant to go to fight in the war.
In subsequent years the poster was re appropriated to promote feminism feminists saw in the image an embodiment of female empowerment. In november 1998 the u s. Though displayed only briefly in westinghouse factories the poster in later year has become one of the most famous icons of world war ii. During the war the name rosie was not associated with the image and the purpose of the poster was not to recruit women workers but to be motivational propaganda aimed at workers of both sexes already employed at.
We can do it by j. Howard miller and posted on the walls of westinghouse electric and manufacturing company s plants in the midwest. Many women became riveters in the ship yards to build battle ships and such to use in the war. In 1982 the we can do it poster was reproduced in a magazine article poster art for patriotism s sake a washington post magazine article about posters in the collection of the national archives.
But she was in for a shock when she took a look at the caption beneath. The lady in we can do it poster of 1943 or more famously known as rosie the riveter has been a case of disagreement for many years. The term rosie the riveter was coupled with various apparently fabricated stories. Postal service authorized a new first class postage stamp honoring the ww ii era working women also using the we can do it rosie.
1943 02 15 wartime propaganda poster we can do it produced by j. The woman in the poster is rosie the riveter. The poster is so popular nowadays that gives an impression that it single handedly inspired the phenomenon of rosie the riveters and motivated all the housewives during wwii. Howard miller we can do it rosie on the cover.
This is when she discovered the old photograph and its astounding connection with the we can do it poster. Smithsonian magazine did a story on wwii era rosie poster art in its march 1994 edition putting the j.