Posted on 12/30/2010 1:37:02 PM PST by Libloather
Geraldine Doyle, Iconic Face of World War II, Dies at 86
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS
Published: December 29, 2010
Geraldine Hoff Doyle, who was believed to be the unwitting model for the “We Can Do It!” poster of a woman flexing her biceps in a factory during World War II — an image that later became a symbol for the American feminist movement — died on Sunday in Lansing, Mich. She was 86.
**SNIP**
Mrs. Doyle was unaware of the poster’s existence until 1982, when, while thumbing through a magazine, she saw a photograph of it and recognized herself. Her daughter said that the face on the poster was her mother’s, but that the muscles were not.
“She didn’t have big, muscular arms,” Mrs. Gregg said. “She was 5-foot-10 and very slender. She was a glamour girl. The arched eyebrows, the beautiful lips, the shape of the face — that’s her.”
In 1942, when she was 17, Geraldine Hoff took a job as a metal presser at a factory near her home in Inkster, Mich., near Detroit, to aid the war effort, Mrs. Gregg said. One day, a United Press photographer came in to shoot images of working women.
The resulting poster, designed by the graphic artist J.Howard Miller, was used in a Westinghouse Company campaign to deter strikes and absenteeism. It was not widely seen until the early 1980s, when it was embraced by feminists.
She quit the factory job after about two weeks because she learned that another woman had damaged her hands while using the metal presser, and she feared that such an injury would prevent her from playing the cello, her daughter said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I thought this was her............
I love that image. Rockwell was amazing.
May God bless.
Tatt
R.I.P. Rosie you represented well.
I have it on a coffee cup, from a set with Rockwell paintings..............
Other than Soviet/Nazi style propaganda,
“She quit the factory job after about two weeks because she learned that another woman had damaged her hands while using the metal presser, and she feared that such an injury would prevent her from playing the cello,...”
Wow. A real Patriot! Thousand died or were injured in WWII and she was more concerned about playing the cello.
Sorry, this is typical Socialist/Communist BS.
Nods. The school fight, (with the grinning girl outside of the principal’s office ;) is another favorite of mine, and of course, his freedom series....especially freedom of speech. Even the study for that one is so powerful.
Thanks for the reminder of good things :)
May God bless.
Tatt
IIRC, the artist used a guy to model the arms on Rosie. But this image made a lot of butch chicks happy.
I have that one on a wall in my den......................
what do you want from a girl who's just seventeen???
RIP.
Was reading the NYT obituary and I noticed this odd line:
“Her daughter said that her death was due to complications from arthritis.”
I thought to myself “What? Since when do you die of arthritis?” And then I did a little research and found out that rheumatoid arthritis can indeed be fatal.
The things you learn every day...
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