World War II photograph collection
Call Number
Date
Creator
Extent
Language of Materials
Abstract
The World War II Photograph Collection includes promotional material from the United States War Department, the vast majority from the U.S. Navy.
Arrangement
The collection is organized in the following series:
Series I: United States Army Photographs (1941-1945)
Series II: United States Coast Guard Photographs (1941-1945)
Series III: United States Navy Photographs (1921-1963)
Series IV: Other Photographs (1942-[1945])
Throughout the collection, named subjects are filed first, and then miscellaneous photos are filed by date. In some cases, miscellaneous photos may complement the subjects in named series or folders; in these cases "see also" references have been given in the container listing.
Scope and Content Note
The World War II Photograph Collection spans the period from 1941 to 1948 and includes promotional material from the United States War Department, the vast majority from the U.S. Navy. Photos are arranged alphabetically by creating agency and thereunder by subject. The collection includes approximately 2,000 black and white, 8 x 10" photographs and several smaller prints.
During processing, this material was removed from the Subject File. Members and equipment of the U. S. Navy, U.S. Army Air Force, and U. S. Coast Guard are shown. American pluck is a key feature of the photographs. Most photos have press information or narrative detail on the verso or on papers attached to the photo. The photos and their accompanying text give an idea of the breadth and message of the public relations campaign in America to encourage support for the war. Dates listed are the release date of the photos which, in the case of battles, was often several months after the event. In some instances groups of photos were released to commemorate important events. For example, a group of pictures showing the recovered ships sunk at Pearl Harbor was released in December 1942 for the one-year anniversary of the attack.
United States troops are seen in many different situations. Battle scenes mainly focus on bombing raids and burning ships in the Pacific arena. Italian POWS at a camp in New Jersey are shown. Both the German and Japanese surrenders are shown. Photos also include many U.S. ships involved in the war. The launching of battleships and aircraft carriers are well documented, as is the salvage of the cruise ship Normandie and its subsequent refitting as the U.S.S. Lafayette. Sailor life on board several ships, including the U.S.S. Missouri, is also shown. Some aerial views, once considered confidential, of ships in New York Harbor are contained in the U.S. Army Eastern Defense Command folders. Several New York area Naval Commandants are pictured, as well as many enlisted men at several different training facilities.
Women are displayed at work in many of these photos. Navy WAVES are shown readying themselves for battle as well as enjoying leisure activities. Photos of the New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn highlight women working as machinists and welders.
Throughout the collection, named subjects are filed first, and then miscellaneous photos are filed by date. In some cases, miscellaneous photos may complement the subjects in named series or folders; in these cases "see also" references have been given in the container listing.
Subjects
Organizations
Genres
People
Topics
Access Restrictions
Materials in this collection may be stored offsite. For more information on making arrangements to consult them, please visit www.nyhistory.org/library/visit.
Use Restrictions
Taking images of documents from the library collections for reference purposes by using hand-held cameras and in accordance with the library's photography guidelines is encouraged. As an alternative, patrons may request up to 20 images per day from staff.
Application to use images from this collection for publication should be made in writing to: Department of Rights and Reproductions, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5194, rightsandrepro@nyhistory.org. Phone: (212) 873-3400 ext. 282.
Copyrights and other proprietary rights may subsist in individuals and entities other than the New-York Historical Society, in which case the patron is responsible for securing permission from those parties. For fuller information about rights and reproductions from N-YHS visit: https://www.nyhistory.org/about/rights-reproductions
Preferred Citation
This collection should be cited as World War II Photograph Collection, PR 76, Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections, New-York Historical Society.
Location of Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gifts, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1950, 1957, 1959.
Separated Material
Two published volumes were removed from the collection and cataloged in the New-York Historical Society library. These volumes are "Patchogue family album: Christmas greetings to our boys and girls in the Armed Forces, who by their gallant efforts won a victorious peace" and the program from the New York Retirement Federation of Civil Service Employees' 31st Entertainment and Reception (with a picture of the U.S.S. Missouri on the cover.)
About this Guide
Processing Information
Processed by Jenny Gotwals, circa 2000.
Repository
Series I: United States Army Photographs
Scope and Contents note
A folder of Air Force "tear sheets" promotes the air forces' actions in Europe. U.S. Army Air Force pictures show men and women in training and combat. Photographs highlighting the Eastern Defense Command publicize how the Army defended the physical space of the United States: tracking ships, stationing anti aircraft guns. U.S. Army Signal Corps are shown at Watervliet Arsenal, in training camps, and as paratroopers.
Eastern Defense Command, 1942, 1944, undated, inclusive
U.S. Army Air Force -- Airmen and women, undated
U.S. Army Air Force - Combat, undated
U.S. Army Air Force -- Planes, aloft, undated
U.S. Army Air Force - Planes, grounded, undated
U. S. Army Air Force Tear Sheets, undated
U.S. Army Signal Corps, 1941-1943, undated, inclusive
U.S. Army Signal Corps -- Editor's Day on Governor's Island, 1942 Apr. 18
U.S. Army Signal Corps -- Gen. Drum Inspecting Fort Hancock, 1943 Apr. 14
U.S. Army Signal Corps -- German Surrender, Rheims, France, 1945 May 5-7
Series II: United States Coast Guard Photographs
Scope and Contents note
Series II shows many New York-area locations of Coast Guard actions; the Hudson River, the Manhattan Beach USCG Station, a USCG Mooring Base on Travers Island in Pelham, NY, and the Statue of Liberty are all pictured. Photographs also highlight the Coast Guard Pharmacists Mates School at Columbia College of Pharmacy, the Coast Guard Hospital Corps, and the Coast Guard Training Academy in New London, CT. Implements such as lighthouses, ice cutters, and fireboats are common scenes in the photos. A photo of journalist Ernie Pyle is in Folder 19.
Manned Convoys, undated
New York, undated
Queen Mary & Elizabeth, 1945, inclusive
Ships, undated
Miscellaneous Photos, 1941-1945, undated, inclusive
Series III: United States Navy Photographs
Scope and Contents note
Folder titles are those used by the Navy Public Relations Department; folder titles in brackets were assigned by N-YHS Staff during processing. Often, the Navy-assigned titles sound ready for newspaper headlines. Some titles may seem to have no relationship to the photos to those unfamiliar with military terminology. "Baby Flat Top -- The Navy's Child Prodigy" is the title of a photo series showing life aboard an aircraft carrier. In "Shakedown," new recruits are taken on a practice mission in order to learn how to take care of a ship and to "get their sea legs."
Most of the photographs highlight the Pacific theatre of war. Battles shown or highlighted (sometimes including the aftermath) include: the invasion of Borneo, Pearl Harbor, the Battle of Guadalcanal, the Makin Island Raid, the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Battle of the Solomon Islands, the Battle of Santa Cruz Island, and the Battle of the Philippine Sea. Navy troops are shown in Borneo, the Philippines (the subject of many photos taken throughout 1944 and 1945), Formosa, New Zealand, Guam, Saipan, New Guinea, the Marshall Islands, and the Solomon Islands. Other photographs show Navy Combat Troops landing at Attu in the Aleutian Islands.
Photos showing the European front are mainly of Italy and North Africa, including "Operation Bootstrap" to liberate Italy. Photographs of Italy, including several titled "British fighting in Sicily" (folder 96), show "Naples in Ruins,"( folder 98) and troops landing in Anzio, Italy. Other European photographs include "U.S. Navy Crosses the Rhine" (folder 106), and others showing Le Havre, Brest, (folder 103), and beachheads throughout France (folder 102).
Women are the subject of many photographs and photographic series. Women at work in the New York Navy Yard get much attention, as do the WAVES, the Navy's Auxiliary force for women. WAVES are seen in church, on deck of a ship (sunbathing, while sailors look on), "at chow," and in their summer uniforms. Folder 95 contains a photo of Madame Chiang Kai Chek reviewing WAVES at a New York training academy. Folder 102 shows Eleanor Roosevelt reviewing a group of WAVES.
The New York Navy Yard (also known popularly as Brooklyn Navy Yard) is prominently featured in many photographs. The Navy Yard's activities peaked around October of 1944, with employment of over 70,000 workers working around the clock to build and repair ships for the United States Navy. The yard was made up of 6 dry docks, 2 building ways, 8 piers, 270 buildings, 19 miles of paved streets, and 30 miles of railroad tracks. Many ships launched from the Navy Yard are shown here, and several photo series show employees hard at work. One interesting photograph shows a visit by the Regent of Iraq to the New York Navy Yard (Folder 107.)
Military technology and weaponry dominate the Naval photographs. Many photos of the U.S. Ships were taken up to 20 years after the end of the war. A large number of these photographs are not marked with the name of the ship. However, ships shown during wartime are well-documented and described on the verso of the photographs. Aircraft carriers are pictured in Folders 95, 98, 99, and 108. A model aircraft carrier is shown on display at Rockefeller Center in New York in Folder 107. "Helldivers," or bombing planes, are shown in folders 98. "Avengers," torpedo bombers, are shown in Folders 98, 101, and 105. "Hellcats," another bombing plane, appear in Folder 97.
[Aerial Views of New York Harbor], 1944 Nov. 7
Allies Seize Green Islands, 1944 Mar. 13
Baby Flat Top -- The Navy's Child Prodigy, 1944 Apr. 30
Scope and Contents
See also Folder 105
Battle of Midway, 1942 Jun.
[Commissioning Ceremonies and Launchings], undated
[Convoys], undated
[D-Day], 1944 Jun.
Fall of Ustica, 1943 Sep.
Floating Dry Docks -- "Field Hospitals" for Navy Ships, 1945 Jun. 15
Scope and Contents
See also Folder 107
Helldiver Flight Deck Crash Recorded Step by Step, 1945 Jun. 11
Iwo Jima: Bloody Milestone on the Tokyo Road, 1945 Mar. 13
Kiska Island Landing, 1943 Aug.
[Motor Torpedo Boat], undated
"Mulberry"--the Secret Floating Harbor, Normandy Landings, 1944 Oct. 23
Naval Officer Training at Fort Schuyler, Bronx, New York, undated
[Naval Training], undated
Scope and Contents
See also Folders 92 and 105
Naval Training Station, Samson, New York, 1942 Oct., undated
Navy Advance Base Unit Hits the Beach at Lido, 1944 Sep. 19
Navy Day in New York, 1945 Oct. 27
Navy Testing New Uniforms for Enlisted Men, 1946 Jan. 4
New York Celebrates "Waves and Spars" Day, 1943 Feb. 8
New York Welcomes Nimitz, 1945 Oct. 9
[New York Navy Yard], 1944, 1945, undated, inclusive
Scope and Contents
See also Folders 91, 96, 101, 104, 106, 107, and 109
New York Navy Yard Calls Women to Work, undated
[Planes], undated
Scope and Contents
See also Folders 99 and 101
[Plotting Ship Movements], undated
Poster Designs, undated
"Power in the Pacific" exhibit prints, [1945], inclusive
PT's Maneuver in Off-Shore Waters of an East Coast Port, undated
Shakedown, 1944 Jan. 31
[Submarines], undated
Scope and Contents
See also Folders 100 and 107
Take Off for Tokyo, 1943 Apr. 20
Torpedo Testing Range, Montauk Point, Long Island, 1944 Feb. 21
[U.S. Naval Reserve Midshipmen's School], undated
U.S. Navy Destroyer Escorts a United Nations Convoy, undated
A U.S. Navy Transport Completes Mission, undated
U.S.S. Aaron Ward, 1945 Aug. 24
[U.S.S. Bon Homme Richard Launching], 1944 Apr.
Scope and Contents
See also Folder 100
[U.S.S. Enterprise], 1943 May
[U.S.S. Franklin D. Roosevelt Launching], 1945 Apr. 29
U.S.S. Iowa Launching, 1942 Aug.
[U.S.S. Kearsarge Launching], 1945 May
[U.S.S. Lafayette/Normandie Salvage], 1943, undated, inclusive
A U.S.S. LST Joins a United Nations Convoy, undated
U.S.S. Missouri Launching, 1944, inclusive
Scope and Contents
See also Folder 107
[U.S. Ships], 1921-1963, undated, inclusive
Scope and Contents
See also Folders 93, 94, 98, 104, 108, and 109
[U.S. Ships], undated
Wake Island Attack, 1942 Feb. 24
Navy WAVES at Floyd Bennett Field, New York, 1943 Jul.
[WAVES at U.S. Naval Hospital], 1945 Jul. 20
Scope and Contents
See also Folders 94- 98, 100, and 102-104
Wartime Commandants, undated
Miscellaneous Photos, 1941-1943 Oct., inclusive
Miscellaneous Photos, 1943 Nov.-1945
Miscellaneous Photos, undated
Series IV: Other Photographs
Scope and Contents note
Two folders of photos are from the Civilian Defence Volunteer Organization, and show war volunteers (often from the American Red Cross) relieving professionals for war duty and performing other important wartime tasks. Several folders of personal photographs are included in the collection. Sixteen snapshots of the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps were taken by a veteran who was present at the freeing of those camps in April 1945. Nine snapshots show Gerhardt Walter, the photographs' donor, in New Guinea in 1945. Eleven snapshots show New York City "dressed for war" with victory banners and flags hung from buildings and across streets, displays of unrationed food, and people in uniform.