Browse Items (21 total)
- Collection: The Great Depression and World War II
2d Lt. Alice C. Thompson, L-201903, Photograph, 1944
During World War II, the United States Army established a unit that enabled women to fill non-combat roles. Prior to the creation of this unit women mostly served as nurses supporting combat troops. In May 1941, Rep. Edith Nourse Rogers of…
Can all you can. It's a real war job! WWII Poster, 1943
During World War II, the American government asked civilians to participate in the war effort. A common way for the government to communicate with civilians was through posters hung in public places. Inspirational, informative, and instructive, the…
Chesapeake Ferry Company, Travel Brochure, circa 1935
Waterways provided the people of the Eastern Shore and Hampton Roads regions with access to food, supplies, and transport long before English colonists arrived in 1607. As English settlements displaced and removed Indigenous people from the land near…
Don't Go Back and Backward with Republicans, Broadside, 1936
In 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt won the presidential election, making him the first Democratic president in twelve years. As President, Roosevelt took quick action through his New Deal initiative to provide relief for struggling Americans through a…
Drawing of Shellfield, Westmoreland Co., Edward A. Darby, 1932-37
In the 1930s, the Virginia State Commission on Conservation and Development’s Division of History and Archaeology received funds from the Works Progress Administration’s (later known as the Work Projects Administration) Federal Art Project to…
Guide Map of Shenandoah National Park, Map, 1937
In 1924, the federal government began looking for land in the southern Appalachian Mountains to create a large national park which would be easily accessible to cars and hikers. The park opened in 1936 and was officially completed in 1939. The…
Helps For Homemakers Booklet, ca. 1943–1945
During World War II booklets were published to assist homemakers provide for their families and meet the requirements of the wartime ration system created after the U.S. entered the war in December 1941. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive…
Hurricane Recovery in Tidewater Virginia: A Partial Report on Red Cross Relief and Rehabilitation in the Area Damaged by Wind and Tidal Wave, 1933
The Atlantic hurricane season officially begins on June 1 and ends November 30, with the season’s peak occurring between August and October. During the very active hurricane season of 1933, the Chesapeake-Potomac Hurricane hit coastal Virginia on…
I fought for Virginia — Now it's your turn! Join the Lee Navy Volunteers, World War II Poster, 1942
The United States produced many posters exhorting people to join the armed forces during World War II, as the need for soldiers, sailors, and pilots was critical. Often, the Office of War Information designed and circulated these posters, which were…
John L. Wilkes of Bedford County, Personal War Service Record Photograph, 1944
On June 6, 1944, soldiers of the Allied Expeditionary Force stormed the beaches of Normandy as part of Operation Overlord, often referred to as D-Day. Approximately 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile…