Dec. 25, 2010

Geraline Hoff Doyle, age 86, died.

Artist illustrator J. Howard Miller used the image of Ms. Doyle that he’d seen in a photo of a Lansing, Michigan factory worker as the focus of his most famous 1942 poster “We Can Do It” supporting the war effort.  Like many of the popular war posters this one was commissioned by a private company. Westinghouse Company’s War Production Coordinating Committee commissioned a poster intended to encourage women to join the war effort work force. During World War II over 11 million women worked in what were traditionally male dominated trades.

For more information see, https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/us/30doyle.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries