Making U.S. Flags in Brooklyn, 1940

Download a larger version:
2292x3000 pixels (1.4MB file).

Download fee: $1.00 [Help/FAQ]

On the eve of World War II patriotic feelings were starting to rise in the U.S. and there was renewed demand for flags. Margaret Bourke-White took this photo in a Brooklyn flag factory, 24 July 1940.

Margaret Bourke-White had an amazing career for any time or place and especially so for a woman in the mid-20th century. She made her reputation with the publication of her photos of the Depression in a book with husband-to-be Erskine Caldwell. Henry Luce hired her as the first female photojournalist for Life magazine, soon after its creation in 1935. She was the first female war correspondent and the first to be allowed to work in combat zones during World War II, and one of the first photographers to enter and document the Nazi death camps.

Today in WW II: 8 Feb 1940 Germans establish the first large Jewish ghetto in Poland in the city of Lodz. More ↓

8 Feb 1941 US House of Representatives passes the Lend-Lease Act [265 to 165].
8 Feb 1942 Battle of Sarimbun Beach begins, the first stage of the Japanese assault on Singapore.
8 Feb 1942 Japanese Offensive in Burma begins [8 Feb-2 May].
8 Feb 1945 Battle of the Reichswald: British and Canadian forces under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery begin Operation Veritable [8 Feb-11 Mar].
Visit the Olive-Drab.com World War II Timeline for day-by-day events 1939-1945! See also WW2 Books.