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this is a wonderful shot! and the colors-
were they restored?
I was trying to think of a tag that said
something like "beginning of women's
liberation movement" but more concise-
ideas?
Posted 6 months ago.
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Wow, amazing photo.
Posted 6 months ago.
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That's really gorgeous!
Posted 6 months ago.
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Great shot, the details are amazing.
Posted 6 months ago.
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Excellent photo! Love the colors. It blows
my mind how this photo survived with great
colors! I enjoy the color match of her
lipstick and the pen in her hand. I also
like the history..how people dressed back
then and actually "dolled" up for
work like this woman in the 40's.
Posted 6 months ago.
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The quality of all these photos is amazing!
Posted 6 months ago.
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I would LOVE to have that arm patch!!!!
:>)
Posted 6 months ago.
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My Pops worked for Lockheed Aircraft in
Burbank, CA. Vega was off and on a small
part of Lockheed Aircraft during WWII.
Posted 6 months ago.
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classic american beauty. i have to wonder
if she dressed like that every day. lipstick
and pefectly pressed dress in all that grease
- i doubt it. the color is outstanding.
Posted 6 months ago.
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I love that she still looks glamorous. I
couldn't do it.
--
Seen on your photo stream. (?)
Posted 6 months ago.
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Beautiful...
Posted 6 months ago.
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Love the tone and color!
Posted 6 months ago.
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This is titled "Hollywood's Loss"
over on Shorpy. Can't disagree.
Posted 6 months ago.
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I like the contrast between the (lipstick,
hairstyle, and blouse) and the (gloves and
work she is doing).
Aside from her gloves, it looks like she
should be doing some kind of office work,
definitely not checking wire harnesses.
This is a very cool trip back into history.
Posted 6 months ago.
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Wundervoll!
Posted 6 months ago.
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it's so interesting to see that she's wearing
lipstick, blush, eyeshadow.. a nice blouse,
her hair is well done... the only thing
setting her apart from a stepford wife is the
pair of gloves, the arm patch, and her
profession. so different from today, where
women in technical positions aren't expected
to look any different from the men in
technical positions. then again, i think the
dress code on both sides of the sexes has
been loosened for these types of things...
much more concerned now about safety than
appearance.
Posted 6 months ago.
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@getthebubbles
How about "emancipation" or
"suffrage".
Neither are really right, but it's that
kind of feeling.
Posted 6 months ago.
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She is gorgeous.
Posted 6 months ago.
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Glad you are enjoying the photos! Regarding
the color for these early examples of
Kodachrome color transparencies, in
digitizing them we tried to reproduce the
originals as faithfully as possible. For the
full story on how we digitized the FSA Color
photographs, go to http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/fsacdig.html
Posted 6 months ago.
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These are amazing and inspiring! What a
collection!!!
I love how he women had class and style,
and weren't afraid to work hard !
Posted 6 months ago.
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Kodachrome uses external dye couplers that
are added at the time of processing. All
other color films use dye couplers integrated
with the emulsion. This makes the Kodachrome
process much more complicated but the image
is far more stable. This slide will still
look good long after we're all dead.
Posted 6 months ago.
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She is beautiful. I wonder where she is now
and if she knows we are all admiring her.
Posted 6 months ago.
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Style, grace and beauty with amazing
lighting....
Posted 6 months ago.
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The reason for the fine color, undoubtedly
with no restoration, has been explained.
Also consider that LC will have kept the
slides in proper storage conditions, which
many home slides and phots are not stored in.
Remember that this was during WWII, when a
great deal of the factory and other work was
done by "Rosie the Riveter" and her
friends. If you don't know that poster
image, google it (or yahoo it). Women did
indeed do all sorts of "factory
work" and men's work that they'd never
done before, as all the men were off fighting
and dying.
Also consider that it is 99 percent sure
that this was NOT a candid, but a posed shot
of a selected woman who was told to dress
more formally, wear makeup, and so forth.
Women's Lib? Probably not. It was a
wartime necessity, and afterwards a great
many of them went back to usual "women's
work" at home. Think of June Cleaver,
who, if there were any back story, may well
have been riveting wings of P-38s a few years
earlier, but in the 50s was cooking dinner in
heels and hose.
Posted 6 months ago.
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I could see Gena Davis playing her in a
movie...
Posted 6 months ago.
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mama!
Posted 6 months ago.
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Beautiful!
--
Seen on your photo stream. (?)
Posted 6 months ago.
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Wow, these archives truly show the detail
that medium and large format film can
capture, utilizing a Sinar 54H digital back
to capture thus shows how far the consumer
grade DSLR's have to go before even nearing
the resolution of film.
Posted 6 months ago.
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so fantastic to have all these images
available -- i can see myself spending hours
going through them all!
thank you!
Posted 6 months ago.
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You guys!!! This is so awesome.
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Description from Library of Congress says no
enhancement at all..... just scanned as is.
This is hard to believe, because many
professional photos as old as this, if they
are in color, have already faded.
Posted 6 months ago.
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this is a scanned transparency, not a print,
so much less likely to fade...
Posted 6 months ago.
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I have an ongoing project (brand new, of
course), started in an effort to help restore
the color to these images, but also try to
maintain the integrity and charm of the
original.
Here is the adjusted photo:
www.flickr.com/photos/alec_fredericks/2201429
168/
And the Commons Upgrade set:
www.flickr.com/photos/alec_fredericks/sets/72
157603732346...
Posted 6 months ago.
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AMAZING...this looks so "current."
Like it could have been shot yesterday.
Fantastic that we have shots like these for
posterity. :)
SO GLAD YOU'VE JOINED FLICKR! :)
--
Seen in your 1930s-40s in Color set. (?)
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"thus shows how far the consumer grade
DSLR's have to go before even nearing the
resolution of film."
I totally agree, which is why I am still a
die-hard slide film user, even though I have
a very hard time finding film these days.
Posted 6 months ago.
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This is such a fascinating project!
I work as a digitisation technician for a
Design Archive, so I am excited to see how
the LOC has used Flickr to get the images
'out there'. And I'm straight to that link to
read more about the project!
I also don't think that woman really
dressed like that for work, in fact, I
wouldn't be surprised if the whole thing was
staged and she was really a model! I mean, in
the 40's, the only woman who looked like that
at a manual job was Joan Crawford in the
movies, right??
It would be interesting to hear from women
from that time to see what they say...
Posted 6 months ago.
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Wow! this is such a great picture. It
really shows the demands on women to both be
beautiful and laborious at the same time.
Posted 6 months ago.
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Superb image, and what clarity. Even for
work, the women would get all dolled up back
then..amazing..she's beautiful.
Posted 6 months ago.
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The colors!!!
Posted 6 months ago.
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YAY!! I finally know that the past had colors
too!
Posted 6 months ago.
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yeah, they have been available, but it is
very nice to have them in such a public and
open place.
Posted 6 months ago.
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That a wonderful shot!!!! The woman is so
beautiful. The atmosphere scene gives really
strong feeling.
Posted 6 months ago.
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Very nice
Posted 6 months ago.
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Ektachrome was developed in 1935 and
Kodacolor in 1942 - my parents have
Kodachrome slide transparancies from the 50s
that are as saturated as the day they were
processed
Posted 6 months ago.
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Beautiful color, but more so shows the mettle
and adaptability of the American people
Posted 6 months ago.
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Like ACFred above, I've also had a go at
re-processing this photo, starting with the
141MB TIFF image from the Library of
Congress:
I'm not suggesting all these old photos
should be "enhanced" until they
look like they were taken yesterday, but it
is interesting to have a look at them after
processing nonetheless. And that being said,
there's certainly room to improve the JPEG
encoding of these images even without
touching the colour-balance - just compare
the large version of this image to the large
version of mine to see the extra detail
that's there. I've uploaded the full
7788x6384 pixel image there if you want a
look - it's about 7MB.
Posted 6 months ago.
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i agree that she looks beautiful, and out of
place yet perfectly comfortable in her
surroundings. A whole different era, I've
probably never looked this good going to work
and I work in a nice clean office.
--
Seen on your photo stream. (?)
Posted 6 months ago.
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This is also war propaganda. Posters such as
this were used to motivate the public and
keep the moralle at a higher level. I guess
this was the first kind of
"subversive" advertising, only with
a noble purpose.
Posted 6 months ago.
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If it is a Kodachrome, likely is, it is not
at all unusual that the color are this
saturated and flesh tones so lifelike. A
hallmark of the grainless compostion of this
photographer's favorite emulsion.
Also, if it kodachrome then this is a
studio shot - definintly couldn't eb
documentary candid news photo. Why? Other
than all the obvious art direction and
styling cues for of the model and hair and
dress, Kodachrome is extremely slow-speed
film meaning there has to be a light/strobe
kit involved in the making of this image. And
a tripod for the camera .. and. I love the
LOC for this.
Posted 6 months ago.
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You're right; it's Kodachrome sheet film.
This good conversation made us wonder if
other photos in the b&w FSA/OWI
collection could offer additional clues to
the context. Found one more portrait of this woman with a caption that mentions "Hollywood
missed a good bet when they overlooked this
attractive aircraft worker.”
(The b&w negatives are low resolution
since scanned in the 1990s to capture the whole collection of 170,000 b&w negatives.)
Posted 6 months ago.
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Just an innocent question: Is it incidental
that these pictures appear to be truly
patriotic (all of them but one?) while the
caucuses are on their way? Beyond all doubt
they are fantastic to look at. But why does
it appeal to me, that they are - in the
choice that has been made - also
'republican'? I absolutely wish I was wrong.
Posted 6 months ago.
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I don't think the choices have anything to do
with political parties. Franklin Roosevelt,
the president at the time the photos were
taken, was a Democrat.
Posted 6 months ago.
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Wow, this photo looks as though it was taken
recently and a model was highly stylized for
the shoot. Stunning color and tone.
Posted 6 months ago.
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seeing this photo really gave me context into
what they did...
the attire makeup and complexion of these
women seem as if they were more fit for the
office... but yet they volunteered for these
more heavy and dangerous jobs... perhaps to
help their loved ones fighting overseas..
Posted 6 months ago.
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 mospirit and yes i agree... she looks more like a
model...
Posted 6 months ago.
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this creates a feeling; brings history to a
real level. makes you feel as though this is
someone you knew, someone you cared about.
history in color. amazing.
Posted 6 months ago.
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Almost all these photos are posed. The
clothing is wrong for the job (and too
clean). Still, the women might have been real
workers, not models.
It seems patriotic because it was part of
war effort propaganda, but neither party has
a monopoly on that. The nation pulled
together and pitched in during WWII in a way
that it has never done since.
Unfortunately most of these women were
summarily fired after the war so as to make
their jobs available for the returning men.
Still, it gave them a taste of independence
that changed America.
Posted 6 months ago.
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You can clearly see the tip if you look at
the full-sized photo.
Posted 6 months ago.
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Is that even a pen or pencil or some sort of
marker anyway? Looks to be some sort of
electrical testing device, which would make
sense given the context.
Posted 6 months ago.
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Hello,
We blogged about this initiative on
Idealist.org last week. I hope it is all
right that we used this photo to illustrate
the entry. Please let me know if the
attribution looks all right or if you would
prefer I remove it:
www.idealist.org/en/blogs/3/1235
Thanks so much,
Julia Smith
julia at idealist dot org
Posted 6 months ago.
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The women in these pictures were almost
certainly not models, and I'm surprised that
some commenters would suggest that they were.
My grandmother worked in an aircraft plant
while my grandfather was at Oak Ridge
unknowingly helping to build The Bomb. She
tested parts until she volunteered to ferry
fighters to England - which is to say she got
flying lessons in order to deliver P-51
Mustangs across the Atlantic. My grandmother
was as beautiful as these ladies. I wish she
had been the subject of one of these shots.
I'll speculate that these particular ladies
were asked to wear nice clothes (in some
cases) for "picture day".
Posted 6 months ago.
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wonderful.. would there be room for more
tags, i would have added
"workforce"
Posted 6 months ago.
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Yes, Mike I think that it right. She is
performing tests. I can't for the life of me
think of what that is called though...but
it's not a pen.
Posted 6 months ago.
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my tag would have been armband.
Posted 6 months ago.
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Wonderful picture that captures the era.
Color and detail are fabulous.
I tried to add a tag Kodachrome but there
is a 75 limit.
--
Seen in your 1930s-40s in Color set. (?)
Posted 6 months ago.
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Wow, talk about being overdressed for the
job! (from this time perspective)
Posted 6 months ago.
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m, as me, a.k.a. marie [deleted] says:
Even working, ladies were so beautifully
dressed.
The photographs are awesome, and you you
make them still alive is
very precious.
Thanks for this.
Posted 6 months ago.
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Wow. This is incredible.
Posted 6 months ago.
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Such heavy gloves must have meant
considerable risk at this date . could they
be insulative and she is working on live
wiring?
Posted 6 months ago.
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I was in the Air Force for 13 years and work
in a plant similar to this one.
As her armband says Vega Aircraft Inspector her job may not be a dirty one..
Her job was probably to inspect newly made
wire harness for the avionics systems or bomb
bay systems..
Today they are called Quality Control and they rarely get dirty unless they have
to crawl into a tight space somewhere on the
aircraft itself..
The tool in her hand is a Pen Light used
for inspecting the connectors in the wire
harness and the gloves were for handling
those connectors because they have notches in
them for tools to grab on too..
Some of these notches can be very sharp and
give you metal splinters i know because i
used to get them all the time..
Here are some pics of 1930's-1940's Pen
Lites:
www.flashlightmuseum.com/flashlights/MI00046.
jpg
-and-
www.flashlightmuseum.com/collectors/craig_sma
rt2.jpg
These are not live wires she is sitting at
a work bench see the shelves to the left!
;=)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Oh beautiful picture thanks for sharing.
Why is the Shorpy version much cleaner then
this one?
Posted 6 months ago.
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This photograph matches the pictures I have
in my mind from stories my mom told me about
the war, WWII, the big one. There was
something inherently glamorous about that era
-- hard as things were -- we were united as a
country -- the women were beautiful and the
men were brave. I would almost have to be
dead now to have lived through that era
(instead of being born in it), but sometimes,
when I look at these photos and listen to the
big band music reminiscent of the times, I
almost would trade my life for hers. She had
a gleam in her eye when she spoke about those
times.... the sacrifices were a privilege,
not a burden. This photo captures that
sentiment precisely.
Posted 6 months ago.
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great, thanks for uploading theses. I wish
they still made kodachrome in 4x5- not that
annyone would process it.
Posted 6 months ago.
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Nice dress contrasts well with the dirty
glove. gives the impression that this is a
staged shot for war propaganda. Of course,
if it was staged, the the lighting would have
been better and her hair would not be
blending into the background...
Posted 6 months ago.
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makes me think of how our standards of female
beauty have changed.
Posted 6 months ago.
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Have you seen the other pictures? I doubt
they were models although the pictures may
have been staged (so what if they were!)
To Rosie the riveter and all of the true
Ladies of that generation:
Thank you all the hard work you did and for
the sacrifices you all made
I wish the current generation was as
selfless as yours is. These pictures are just
fantastic!
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Going to work to 'soder' stuff in bright red
lipstick and a dressy blouse. It may be
staged, but the glamour of this visual image
makes me want to dress up for work today.
Posted 6 months ago.
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My brohter-in-law's mother was an actual
riveter! Her name isn't Rosie, though. :)
Posted 6 months ago.
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It's not a soldering gun it's a flashlight..
See my comments above!
;=)
Posted 6 months ago.
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My mother worked in a factory during World
War II and she wore her hair in something
called a snood while she worked. (Sort of a
hair net) Yes, this is probably a posed shot.
Many photos like this were used to encourage
women to go to work in factories, that needed
workers. A large percentage of men were
fighting in the war. Enough history ranting.
It is a great shot.
Posted 6 months ago.
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Said "makes me think of how our standards of
female beauty have changed" Changed in what way? She's a beautiful
woman, now or then...
Posted 6 months ago.
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This was a posed shot, yes, but don't assume
that most women didn't dress this way, that
she wasn't a real worker or that those aren't
her real clothes. There are many candid shots
of the period that show women just as well
dressed; they simply had different standards
of formality than we do. Not everyone who
worked in a factory position wore a snood,
and lots of women wore dressy snoods as a
fashionable item. Considering the kind of
work she is doing (inspection) her clothes,
hair and makeup are quite reasonable. Most
women at that time would find it unthinkable
to go out without at least lipstick, unless
they were working in a really grubby job.
They wanted to work, not give up their
femininity.
Posted 5 months ago.
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The rolls of her hair are dressed over rats.
It wasn't just curled with curlers and then
pinned up.
Posted 5 months ago.
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You don't just go and enter an aircraft
factory with a camera and shoot. The
photographer certainly had limited mobility
and time to do his work, and certainly the
workers were aware.
Now, can you picture a woman not dressing
up for a photo-shoot she knows when it will
take place? Me neither.
--
Seen in your 1930s-40s in Color set. (?)
Posted 5 months ago.
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this photograph is beyond perfect. the
complimentary wires to her arm band, her hair
and the red instrument she's got in her hand.
the black hair. gorgeous. that dress!
Posted 5 months ago.
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My grandmother was a welder for North
American Aviation in Southern
California....an artist did a couple of
pencil drawings of her working - she worked
there around 1943. If you click on this
picture, next to it are her pay stubs and her
termination letter....when the boys came
home, they wanted their jobs back!
Posted 5 months ago.
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