This article is from the archive of our partner National Journal

In tribute of Mary Doyle Keefe, the model for Norman Rockwell's painting, we take a look at the women who worked on the home front during World War II.

A woman is working on a "Vengeance" dive bomber in Tennessee, circa 1939. (Library of Congress)
A lathe operator machining parts for transport planes at the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation plant in Fort Worth, Texas, 1942.  (Library of Congress)
One of the girls of Vilter Manufacturing Co. filing small gun parts in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1943. (Library of Congress)
Drilling on a Liberator bomber, Consolidated Aircraft Corp. in Fort Worth, Texas, 1942. (Library of Congress)
Helen Bray, who left school to become a mechanic at a western aircraft plant, is making an emplanage section on a new Consolidated transport in Fort Worth, Texas, 1942. (Library of Congress)
Riveters at work on fuselage of Liberator Bomber, Consolidated Aircraft Corp., in Fort Worth, Texas, 1942. (Library of Congress)
Working in the Assembly and Repair Department of the Naval Air Base in Corpus Christi, Texas, 1942. (Library of Congress)
Answering the nation's need for womanpower, Mrs. Virginia Davis made arrangement for the care of her two children during the day and joined her husband at work in the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas, 1942.  (Library of Congress)
Wife of a disabled World War I veteran, Mrs. Cora Ann Bowen (left) works as a cowler at the Naval Air Base in Corpus Christi, Texas, 1942. (Library of Congress)
Before she came to work at the Naval air base, Lorena Craig was a department store girl. Now she is a cowler under civil service, 1942.  (Library of Congress)
Assembly and Repairs Department mechanic Mary Josephine Farley works on a Wright Whirlwind motor at the Naval Air Base in Corpus Christi, Texas, 1942. (Library of Congress)
Women at work on bomber, Douglas Aircraft Company, in Long Beach, California, 1942. (Library of Congress)
Mildred Webb, an NYA trainee at the base, is learning to operate a cutting machine in the Assembly and Repair Department, Corpus Christi, Texas, 1942.  (Library of Congress)
A riveter and her supervisor, in the Assembly and Repair Dept. at the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas, 1942.  (Library of Congress)
A former office worker paints the American insignia on airplane wings, Corpus Christi, Texas, 1942.  (Library of Congress)

This article is from the archive of our partner National Journal.

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