July 1942

I have a wide variety of historical interests, but my greatest love is studying WWII. Lately, I've been focusing a lot on WWII, so you'll be seeing more of that around here for a little while. Making my first Regency gown is still in the back of my mind, especially now that I have the chemise and short stays finished. We're in the final count down time crunch in our homeschooling, so I'm limited in what projects I can focus on at the moment. The dress will have to wait until we've finished our last two subjects: the Civil War and Botany. (My son is in kindergarten, so it shouldn't take that long!)

Anyway, I recently had a conversation with a friend who is a fellow historian of WWII and she asked me if I had heard of the July 1942 magazines. I had no idea what she was talking about. So she excitedly went on to explain that in 1942 the magazine publishing companies were worried that paper was going to be rationed for the war effort which would have been seriously injurious to their industry. As a result, a good majority of the U.S.'s national magazines got together and hatched a plan.They would all print their first July magazine issues with patriotic covers, depicting the American flag and advertisements encouraging the public to purchase government war bonds. The effect on the news racks across the country was no doubt stunningly patriotic - end to end every magazine cover proudly depicting the American flag. The one pictured above is one of my favorites with the flag draped across a painting of Mount Vernon, George Washington's home.

Well, the effort was well worth it. The magazines had shown they were an asset to the governments - people bought more war bonds and paper was not rationed. Tugging the patriotic heartstrings of America had worked.

I found the awesome Smithsonian website that is dedicated to all of these magazine covers. Check it out!