Jul 23, 2024
Merle Oberon and Alfred G. Vanderbilt raise a din by beating pans at an aluminum-collection breakfast at the Stork Club, July 23, 1941. The price of admission was a piece of aluminum ware.
Photo: Associated Press
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Merle Oberon and Alfred G. Vanderbilt raise a din by beating pans at an aluminum-collection breakfast at the Stork Club, July 23, 1941. The price of admission was a piece of aluminum ware.
Photo: Associated Press
Lititz, Pennsylvania. "Scrap collection drive. Each household placed its contribution on the sidewalk. It was then picked up by local trucks whose owners had volunteered their services for civilian defense. The scrap outside a plumber's house consists of pipes." Photographed 1942 by Marjory Collins for the Office of War Information.
Ostensibly a Detroit scrap metal drive according to its ebay description, this photo looks more like an auto graveyard in the early 1940s--at a time when scrap drives did indeed occur as the city’s auto makers had transitioned into manufacturers of military vehicles. As the sign implies, these old cars will be recycled into steel for the war effort. It was a time when even Hollywood stars showed their support by donating the bumpers of their cars to the scrap drives.
In Detroit: A Biography, the author suggested that instead of going back to their business as usual after the war, Detroit automakers should have maintained military production capability for the looming postwar showdown with the Soviet Union. Detroit’s prosperity would not have been so heavily dependent on the fluctuations of the car market as it began to decentralize and outsource...American military spending was/is a much more consistent revenue source and may have protected the city’s economy.
Notice the Montgomery Ward Detroit warehouse in the background right.
Photo source: ebay.com
Children assembled in Chicago’s Office of Civilian Defense headquarters for a pep talk on the need of bringing in more scrap for the war effort. Photograph taken by Jack Delano in November 1942.
Monday, March 23, 2026
I spent the day doing research for our upcoming Fighting for Our Nation exhibit. I love these photos of World War II scrap drives.
Lurking by the scrap heap, 1940s
Merle Oberon, movie star, and Alfred G. Vanderbilt raise a din by beating pans at an aluminum-collection breakfast at the Stork Club in New York, July 23, 1941. The price of admission was a piece of aluminum ware. (AP Photo)
A scrap drive at North Carolina State College (what is now North Carolina State University.) October 7, 1942.