Popular Culture
James Gillespie Collection
One collection that has items relevant to popular culture in
the 1940s is the James Gillespie collection. Although the majority of the
collection contains business records of the Nashville commercial flight
center and its flight instructor program that operated during World War II,
the collection also has items regarding popular culture. Gillespie collected
numerous aviation related magazines and many of them have advertisements
that depict soldiers and propaganda from the period. Some of the titles of
the 1940s magazines are Aviation Magazine and AERO Digest.
Vickie L. Riggan Collection
Another collection with material on American popular culture during the
1940s is the Vickie L. Riggan collection. Riggan is a researcher and
collector of images of World War II women in uniform from popular magazines.
Four series in the collection relate to the popular culture topic. The
"Magazine Covers and Product Ads" include many periodical covers, such as
Collier's, Life, Ladies Home Journal, Time, and Yank Magazine,
that depict American women soldiers in uniform. The series also has product
advertisements from the 1940s, such as Coca-Cola, Milky Way, Camels
Cigarettes, and Western Electric, that show the war propaganda
and the various branches of the military that women served.
"Movie Posters" provides examples of war-related movie posters made in the 1940s that show women soldiers. Some of the films represented include Francis Joins the WACS, I Wanted Wings, and Tail Spin.
The "Songbooks" series provides lyrics and scores for popular movie theme songs from the 1940s. Some of the songs are "Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive," "He Wears a Pair of Silver Wings," "Ja-Da" and "Let's Take the Long Way Home." There are also songbooks that were used by the various branches of the military during the 1940s, such as the "SPARS Songs" and the "Women's Army Corps Songbook."
The "Recruiting Posters" display various ways American women were recruited to join the different branches of the military during World War II. The titles of the posters are: "Ahoy There! WAVES and SPARS recruiting center," "Okay Soldier. . .I'll Take Over! Women's Army Auxiliary Corps," "Serve Your Country in WAVES or SPARS," "Share the Deeds of Victory," "This is the Life. . .and I Love It!," "The Time is Now," and "Woman's Place in War: Women's Army Corps."
Jean Kiger Collection
The Jean Kiger Collection also has materials pertaining to
popular culture during the war. The items related to this topic are in the
Smyrna Air Base series. The files include twenty different copies of the
"Army Hit Kit of Popular Songs" from April 1943 to October 1944. The "Army
Hit Kit" was issued monthly by the Special Services Division Army Service
Forces of the United States Army. Other items found in this series include
cartoons about the war and an article on the celebrations in New York, San
Francisco, and Chicago because of the Japanese surrender.
