Vintage Poster Archives
Woman's Place in War 1944 | WW2 WAC Poster
Woman's Place in War 1944 | WW2 WAC Poster
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A WAC soldier in tan Army Air Forces uniform holds a theodolite to her eye, the instrument's dark barrel occupying the left foreground against a pale, cloud-streaked sky. Her USAAF shoulder insignia is clearly rendered; the WAC Pallas Athene medallion sits in the lower left beside a black panel identifying her role: Weather Observer, Army Air Forces. Bold condensed type across a silver-grey base strip reads in full: WOMAN'S PLACE IN WAR, The Army of the United States has 239 kinds of jobs for women, THE WOMEN'S ARMY CORPS.
Designed by Irving Cooper and published by the U.S. Army Recruiting Publicity Bureau on 22 January 1944 (poster no. PC-88-RPB-1-22-44-50M), this is one of a multi-variant series that matched individual WAC roles to individual illustrated posters. Cooper's tight single-figure composition, painted in a warm, realistic illustrative style, sat within the Recruiting Publicity Bureau's broader campaign to counter public skepticism about women in technical and overseas roles. The Victoria and Albert Museum, which holds an original, notes that the Weather Observer role was generally reserved for women in battalions stationed overseas, marking it as one of the more ground-breaking assignments depicted in the series.
The poster belongs to a documented group of WW2 American home-front recruitment pieces produced in small format (32 x 21 cm) for wide distribution through Army recruiting stations. Held in the collections of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum (National Archives) and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Reproduced here on 200gsm Enhanced Matte Fine Art Paper using pigment-based archival inks. A natural choice for anyone drawn to WW2 graphic history, the visual culture of women's wartime service, or American mid-century illustration.
