Color memories of the Second World War in the lens of American photographers
The 1930s and 1940s were turbulent times for the United States and for the rest of the world. The country did not really recover after the Great Depression, as the Second World War began. Although the United States did not officially participate in the war until Japan attacked the Pearl Harbor base on December 7, 1941, the conflict still affected peaceful life. The photographs presented in this collection are stored in the Library of Congress of the United States. They give an idea of what life was like for Americans during the war years, in color. Some radical changes during the Second World War — for example, the use of female labor in factories or the ubiquity of aerial and mechanized weapons — then became an integral part of life.
(23 photos in total)
Virginia Davis, a riveter in the assembly and repair shop of the naval aviation base, watches the work of Charles Potter, an intern of the National Youth Administration from Michigan in Corpus Christi, Texas. After eight weeks of internship, he will go to the civil service.
Responding to the country's need for a female workforce, Davis arranged to take care of her two children during the day and joined her husband to work at the Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi.
Officer Jesse Rhodes Waller is testing a .30-caliber machine gun that he has just installed on a U.S. Navy combat aircraft at the Corpus Christi base.
A sailor at the Corpus Christi base put on a new model of protective suit and a gas mask designed to protect against a chemical attack.
Jesse Rhodes Waller tests a .30-caliber machine gun on a U.S. Navy aircraft.
Naval mechanics at the Corpus Christi base refuel the plane with kerosene.
Cadet Tanas at the Corpus Christi base.
The widows of Pearl Harbor went to serve at the naval aviation base in Corpus Christi.
Eloise J. Ellis is assigned to the civil Service as a senior inspector of the Assembly and Repair department at the Corpus Christi base.
After seven years in the U.S. Navy, J. D. Estis is considered an old sea wolf among his fellow officers at the Corpus Christi base.
Irma Lee McElroy, a former office employee, puts American signs on the wing of an airplane.
An aviation school cadet trains at a base in Corpus Christi.
One of the planes at the Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi.
Ensign Norissie and Cadet Tenix at the Corpus Christi base in a Grumman F3F-3 fighter jet.
Working with a hydroplane at the Corpus Christi base.
Cadets during training.
Mechanics maintain an A-20 bomber at the airfield in Langley, Virginia.
An M-3 tank and soldiers during an exercise at Fort Knox, Kentucky.
A column of M-4 tanks at Fort Knox.
A young soldier holds a Garand rifle during an exercise at Fort Knox.
Maintenance of the A-20 bomber at Langley airfield.
A lieutenant of the US Marine Corps on a glider during exercises at Page Field at the Parris Island military Base in South Carolina.
The Marine Corps has completed exercises at the Parris Island base.
Keywords: Military base | World War II | World war II | Service | USA | Color photos