Rare, Full-Color Photos from WWII

TITLE_B17F_-_Woman_workers_at_the_Douglas_Aircraft_Company_plant,_Long_Beach,_Calif

Rare, Full-Color Photos from WWII

March 8th is International Women’s Day, so we figured it was a good time to show some rare, color images from WWII…where women played an incredibly important role and came out in droves to support both the war effort and the economy. These were taken by Alfred T. Palmer, who was an Office of War Information (OWI) photographer for the United States from 1941 to 1943. It was during this time that he, along with other photographers working for the government, captured some 1,600 images.

Palmer was most known for his portraits of men and women working in the war industry – most of which were taken on 35mm or 4×5 inch color transparency film. Palmer was partial to 4×5 giving his images a tremendous amount of detail. Notably, his images were also lit with artificial light, hence the almost cinematic quality to them.

A girl riveting machine operator at the Douglas Aircraft Company plant joins sections of wing ribs1 710x560 Rare, Full Color Photos from WWII

A young woman employee of North American Aviation Incorporated working over the landing gear mechanism of a P 51 fighter plane Inglewood Calif1 710x558 Rare, Full Color Photos from WWII

American mothers and sisters like these women at the Douglas Aircraft Company give important help in producing dependable planes for their men at the front Long Beach Calif1 710x553 Rare, Full Color Photos from WWII

Annette del Sur publicizing salvage campaign in yard of Douglas Aircraft Company Long Beach Calif 710x555 Rare, Full Color Photos from WWII

B17F Woman workers at the Douglas Aircraft Company plant Long Beach Calif1 710x551 Rare, Full Color Photos from WWII

Manufacture of self sealing gas tanks Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co1 710x548 Rare, Full Color Photos from WWII

Operating a hand drill at North American Aviation Inc a woman is working in the control surface department assembling a section of the leading edge for the horizontal stabilizer of a plane Inglewood Calif1 710x551 Rare, Full Color Photos from WWII

Operating a hand drill this woman worker is shown working on the horizontal stabilizer 710x554 Rare, Full Color Photos from WWII

Part of the cowling for one of the motors for a B 25 bomber is assembled in the engine department of North American Aviation1 710x554 Rare, Full Color Photos from WWII

Punching rivet holes in a frame member for a B 25 bomber the plant of North American Aviation Inc Calif1 710x551 Rare, Full Color Photos from WWII

Rosie the Riveter Vultee DS 710x567 Rare, Full Color Photos from WWII

Sheet metal parts are numbered with this pneumatic numbering machine in North Americans sheet metal department North American Aviation Inc Inglewood Calif1 710x561 Rare, Full Color Photos from WWII

Students at Washington High School at class training for specific contributions to the war effort Los Angeles Calif 710x555 Rare, Full Color Photos from WWII

Switch boxes on the firewalls of B 25 bombers are assembled by women workers at North American Aviation Incs Inglewood Calif plant1 710x553 Rare, Full Color Photos from WWII

This woman worker at the Vultee Nashville is shown making final adjustments in the wheel well of an inner wing before the installation of the landing gear 547x710 Rare, Full Color Photos from WWII

Two women employees of North American Aviation Incorporated assembling a section of a wing for a P 51 fighter plane1 710x550 Rare, Full Color Photos from WWII

Two women workers are shown capping and inspecting tubing which goes into the manufacture of the Vengeance A 31 dive bomber made at Vultees Nashville division Tennessee 710x552 Rare, Full Color Photos from WWII

Woman working on an airplane motor at North American Aviation Inc. plant in Calif1 710x549 Rare, Full Color Photos from WWII

Women war workers1 547x710 Rare, Full Color Photos from WWII

With careful Douglas training women do accurate electrical assembly and installation work Douglas Aircraft Company Long Beach Ca 710x549 Rare, Full Color Photos from WWII

Woman worker in the Douglas Aircraft Company plant1942 710x547 Rare, Full Color Photos from WWII

Images from the Library of Congress via Lifehacker

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Cygni
They build together machines that their boyfriends will be killed in!
tompano1
Funny. I tipped you guys about exactly these pictures about a year and a half ago and got no reply.
Still amazing images though.
http://twitter.com/sunny2472 adam james
fake
David_Silverman
They united in an effort to fight against tyrannic and oppressive forces. They built machines that their boyfriends, husbands and perfect strangers fought in. Some died, many more came home alive because of these machines. These women and the men who fought in these machines are heroes. It is thanks to them that I am alive and can enjoy all the wonderful things in this world.
http://www.facebook.com/moregone Morgan Glassco
Absolutely love some of these images! Unique lighting given the setting is a factory.
http://www.facebook.com/michael.miller.5815 Michael Miller
Glad I was not born then. Not hot girls at all in these shots. At least they are good at making stuff.
http://www.facebook.com/michael.miller.5815 Michael Miller
LOL that’s why I stopped sending in stuff. But to their credit, they probably get busy. Now they have like 3,000 people posting for them but they still don’t produce as much awesome content like they did a year ago with a smaller staff. Hmmm.
Mike_Kelley
Ouch. I think that our content has improved many times over, personally!
http://twitter.com/stueyholden Stuart Holden
They probably would think the same thing about you. Then again, you wouldn’t be making ignorant comments behind a keyboard, at their age you would have been down on the beaches fighting lol
WhamBamPhotoMa_am
Well, the sad truth, is that only one of you is right, Mike.
“A cognitive bias is the human tendency to make systematic decisions in certain circumstances based on cognitive factors rather than evidence”
WhamBamPhotoMa_am
Unfortunate you weren’t born ridiculously close to a propeller or nuclear radiation.
Mbutu Namubu
If I remember correctly, Susan Sontag remarked in “On Photography” that women were depicted as helpless victims (like Dorothea Lange’s “Migrant Mother”) during the 1930s when Roosevelt wanted to push through the Socialist New Deal for the international bankers.
Then in the 1940s, as international banker-controlled Communist Russia was in danger of being liberated by Nationalist Germany, the media started to depict women as strong industrial workers for Roosevelt’s European war effort.
It’s good for photographers to know the lessons of history. In the span of less than a decade, the medium of photography was able to alter the public’s perception of women from helpless and weak to courageous and strong.
Debbie Davies
Or if you are not happy with the service you could always ask for you subscription costs back. . . . .Oh, wait a minute, It’s all done for free by a bunch of people who try their best and produce some of the best content on line.
http://www.facebook.com/michael.miller.5815 Michael Miller
It’s just my observation. Obviously I still visit the site so it’s not terrible and still entertaining. In my opinion the content has slowed down and there are repeat posts now where as prior Lee would personally respond to emails saying thanks for the clip but we posted that on XYZ date. Some contributors are doing a great job. I would have hoped with the increase of help, there would be more content but I feel that is not the case. Again it’s one man’s observation.
http://www.facebook.com/michael.miller.5815 Michael Miller
I bet you would be a terrible audience member at a comedy show. Just call it a hunch.
Cygni
If everyone refuses to go to war no one needed to die.
Jon McGuffin
David, thank you so much for saying this for me and everybody else who feels the same way. Couldn’t have been said any better.
http://www.marcilford.net/ Marc Ilford
“cinematic quality” indeed! I don’t know whether it is just the lighting
or also the type/brand slide used be these images just have some
magical color/tones I wish I knew how to reproduce. Vibrant colours but
not typical oversatured, the skintones also have some effect I can not
describe but just admire.
Jon McGuffin
When somebody decides to “go to war” on your house or your loved ones and you call the police for help, let me know and I’ll call and tell them “no need, don’t put yourself in danger, they’ll be fine as they beleive there really isn’t such a thing as an aggressor or an injustice”
tompano1
They didn’t mention this in the article but it’s shot with kodachrome. Hence the stunning tones.
http://twitter.com/DRouleauPhoto Dana Rouleau
If a perfect world existed, that could be the case. Sadly, we don’t live in a perfect world, and we never will as long as more than 2 people have differing opinions. There will always be conflict, and it’s been that way as long as we’ve been on this planet.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Joey-Duncan/1111692326 Joey Duncan
You’re not a comedian, nor are you funny.
Laura Vanderwel
Great share, thanks! I love how they all have painted nails and perfectly coiffed hair. do we know if they were posed shots (ie they got dolled up) or if that was just the way of it back then?
Parker Fitzgerald
You’re an idiot.
Guest
This website is becoming more and more of a collection of ads and pr …
http://twitter.com/Eye_Of_Infinity Brandon Bandy
Way to be disrespectful.
Doug Logan
Amazing photos detailing an amazing absence of PPE! How times have changed with anything related to manufacturing. Thanks for sharing!
William Cavender
I’m all about turning the other cheek. However, to think we live in a world where there may be a possibility of “everyone refusing to go to war” is naive and borderline ignorant. You were disrespectful in your initial post, but it’s your freedom to be disrespectful…and that’s a freedom that might not be here without those boyfriends who were killed.
Money.
Religion.
Land.
So long as these things exist, wars will exist.
So, the next time you want to insult people because they fought for your freedom to insult them, maybe put on “Heal The World” by MJ and fix another tofu sandwich instead. Thanks.
Cygni
Thank you! I hope you’re not!
http://twitter.com/v_bobok Vadim Bobkovsky
>international banker-controlled Communist Russia was in danger of being liberated by Nationalist Germany
Oh, you’re just trolling. Of course Nazis were liberators hell yeah, tell that to the jews.

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