World War II and US Visual Culture

Overview and Instructional Use

In this activity, elementary school students will analyze a magazine image to learn about the Home Front, visual culture, and women’s history during World War II to develop visual literacy.  

This lesson can be used:

• As part of a unit on the Home Front during World War II.
• To practice visual literacy skills.
• To teach about propaganda and visual culture.

Materials

• A copy of the “World War II and Visual Culture” activity plan.
• A high-resolution copy of the “Rosie the Riveter” magazine cover.

Procedure

1. Display the magazine image without its caption. Give students time to take notes on the document, generate questions, and attempt to answer them.
2. Discuss student observations, using the questions below as a guide. Use background information to supplement discussion when necessary.
3. Reveal the source caption. Discuss the primary source further with students in a large group.

Step 1: Display the Image

Display the image. Give students time to generate and answer questions about it and write notes. Use the background material at the end of this activity whenever you think it will encourage students to ask more questions and think more about how to engage with the poster.

Click on the image for a high-resolution version that can be displayed for your class.

Looking Closely Questions

Before giving students the caption:

Have students examine the image for more than a minute.

• What do you see?
• Describe the person you see in the picture.
• List some of the objects and details in the picture.
• What questions do you have about this illustration or the person it depicts?

Use the background material at the end of this activity whenever you think it will encourage students to ask more questions and think more about how to engage with the image.

Step 2: Discuss Student Observations

Discuss student observations as a large group. If students haven’t been able to generate their own questions, ask:

• What is the woman in the picture wearing?
• What she is holding, and what the things are around her?
• Who do you think the person is in the picture? What kind of work does she do?
• What can also you tell about her age, physical health, social class, and even her diet?

Step 3: Reveal the Source Caption. Discuss the Primary Source Further

Provide students with all or part of the caption.

Norman Rockwell, “Rosie the Riveter,” Saturday Evening Post, May 29, 1943

You may want to review the Skills Lesson: Reading a Caption with students. Explain or make sure students understand what “riveting” is. Then ask:

• What was occurring in American history at the time of this publication?
• How could riveting help in the war effort?
• Why would it be different and interesting to see a woman doing this kind of work?

More Extensive Analysis Questions

• Both men and women bought and sold magazines. How might a magazine with an illustration like this on its cover have appeared to a female audience?
• How does showing untraditional “fighters” like “Rosie” help win the war?
• Although this picture looks realistic, “Rosie the Riveter” was a fictional character that was originally created as media propaganda to encourage women to work in wartime factories. How might actual women factory workers have been different from the person depicted here?

Background

World War II engaged just about everyone in the United States in some way. Newspapers and magazines were full of stories about the war—what was happening overseas and how the war was being supported on the “home front.”

Pictorial magazines, which contained a mixture of news, human-interest stories, advertising, and pictures, were extremely popular during this period. The Saturday Evening Post was one of the most popular. The artist Norman Rockwell was a regular contributor to the magazine, and his pictures came to represent an “American ideal.”

Rockwell was a prolific illustrator. His first cover for the Post appeared in 1916 when he was only twenty-two. Over the next forty-seven years he illustrated a total of 322 covers. Rockwell always had actual people pose for his pictures. The subjects of most of his illustrations were taken from middle-class small-town life and were often light and humorous. Though his illustrations were loved by the general public, Rockwell was not taken seriously as an artist by most critics.

Extension Activity 1

Have students research and then analyze other magazine covers and advertisements from the 1930s and 1940s that show women.

Have students consider how the women were represented. Why they were being shown that way? Were they selling a product? Helping the war effort? Were these truthful representations? And/or were they stereotypes?

Extension Activity 2

Have students research or review material covered in class about the role of women in factories during World War II. Ask:

• What have you learned about the kind of work they did?
• What happened to these workers when male workers returned from the war?

Extension Activity 3

Show students a variety of images (photographs and art) that show “Rosie the Riveter” or women doing factory work during the war. How are these images different from Rockwell’s Rosie? How are they different from each other?

The Wikipedia article “Rosie the Riveter” has a good selection.

For example:

Additional Resources

• Collection Essay “World War II and U.S. Visual Culture.”
• Powers of Persuasion, an exhibit at the National Archives on World War II posters.
• “Norman Rockwell: A Brief Biography,” Norman Rockwell Museum
• “Norman Rockwell: American Illustrator,” Encyclopedia Britannica

Illinois Social Science Standards

This lesson supports the following standards from the Illinois Learning Standards for Social Science:

History

• SS.1 H.2. Generate questions and investigate diverse individuals and groups who have shaped a significant historical change. 
• SS.4.H.2. Generate questions about multiple historical sources and their relationships to particular historical events and developments. 

Common Core

This lesson supports the following Common Core Literacy in History/Social Science standards:

English Language Arts: History/Social Studies

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.1: Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.7: Use information gained from illustrations (e.g., maps, photographs) and the words in a text to demonstrate understanding of the text (e.g., where, when, why, and how key events occur).

The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework

This lesson supports the following C3 Framework standards:

Dimension 2, History

• D2.His.3.K-2. Generate questions about individuals and groups who have shaped a significant historical change.
• D2.His.3.3-5. Generate questions about individuals and groups who have shaped significant historical changes and continuities.
• D2.His.11.3-5. Infer the intended audience and purpose of a historical source from information within the source itself.
• D2.His.12.3-5. Generate questions about multiple historical sources and their relationships to particular historical events and developments

Download the following materials below:

• A copy of the “World War II and U.S. Visual Culture” activity