Enlist in the WAVES
Artist
John Philip Falter
United States, 1910 - 1982
Date1943
Dimensions41 x 27 1/2 in. (104.1 x 69.9 cm)
ClassificationsPoster
Credit LineGift of Peter A. Blatz
Object numberPH.14
DescriptionThis poster illustrated by United States Navy Reserve Artist John Falter with a rather conventional image of a resolute-looking woman in uniform as air and sea battles rage behind her, was issued in 1943 to recruit women to the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, otherwise known as the Women’s Naval Reserve). By the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, it was clear that women would be needed to assist in the war and there was increasing public pressure on the government to include women in the armed forces. On March 15, 1942, Congress created the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) and on July 30, 1942, Public Law 689 established the Women’s Naval Reserve, intended to “expedite the war effort by releasing officers and men for duty at sea and their replacement by women in the shore establishment of the Navy, and for other purposes.” The head of the Advisory Council for the Women’s Reserve was the formidable Dr. Virginia Gildersleeve of Barnard College in New York, who later suggested that “if the Navy could possibly have used dogs or ducks or monkeys, certain of the older admirals would probably have greatly preferred them to women."On View
Not on view
