Rosie the Riveter, 1943
Rosie the Riveter became a symbol of all the women who went into war industry jobs during World War II when the men left to fill up the ranks of the US armed forces. Obviously, these women needed clothing that fit the job, and in this cover from the Saturday Evening Post for May 29 of 1943, Norman Rockwell painted her in a blue work shirt and bibbed overalls. I saw it recently at the Air Zoo in Portage, Michigan and realized I could still learn more about this well-known image.
Look at the top of her head, where her plastic face shield is pushed back, making a kind of halo lending a spiritual value to her work. And the curators draw attention to how her pose echoes that of the Prophet Isaiah in Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, although he has neither a lunch-box under his arm nor a sandwich in his hand.
Notice she wears cosmetics--lipstick and rouge-- under her layer of grime. Indeed, that lipstick production would not end during the war was front-page news in American papers. Women clung to what normality they could during wartime, including their cosmetics. The leather band on her wrist, like the up-do of her hair, was meant to protect her body from industrial accidents. Her loafers tell us that women’s protective work shoes did not yet exist, but notice that Rockwell has resting her loafers on a copy of Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler, signalling the importance of all the Rosies to the war effort.
For more on the Air Zoo which was foundered by Suzanne and Pete Parish. She served in the the Women Airforce Service Pilots or WASP during the war and he was a Marine Air Corps aviator. Zoo because so many planes had animals names, Flying Tiger, Bearcat, etc.
You can find out more about the museum and their programs, including summer science camps, here: https://www.airzoo.org/
