Making U.S. Flags in Brooklyn, 1940

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: 17 Sep 1939 Soviet troops invade Poland from the east. More ↓

17 Sep 1944 Thousands of Allied planes begin airborne assault on Holland, Operation Market Garden.
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