March 21 is Rosie the Riveter Day!

March 21 is Rosie the Riveter Day – the day honors the many American women (represented by Rosie) supporting the war effort with their hard work on the home front during World War II. With much of the male workforce absent during the war, women stepped up to work factory jobs and produce munitions.

Did you know? One of the most famous depictions of Rosie was modeled on the real-life Mary Louise Doyle, a nineteen-year-old telephone operator and neighbor of artist Norman Rockwell. He based her pose on that of Michelangelo’s Isaiah on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

A real-life “Rosie the Riveter” operating a hand drill at Vultee-Nashville, Tennessee, working on an A-31 Vengeance dive bomber, Alfred T. Palmer, 1943

-Written by Anna Zemaitaitis, Communications and Design Officer