Image description: Outdoors, under a tree, men in military uniforms kneel in rows behind a chaplain. The chaplain’s head is bent over his hands in prayer.
Image description: Franklin D. Roosevelt and his family pose in front of a large Christmas tree. One woman is holding a baby on her lap, and most people are smiling and looking at the baby. The Christmas tree is heavily decorated with tinsel.
Image description: A political cartoon depicting some of Berryman’s recurring characters opening Christmas gifts, among them: Miss Democracy receiving a bouquet of candidates; the Government Clerk receiving “Same Old Hours”; DC receives a pickaxe labeled “Street Cleaner” from Uncle Sam. The Teddy Bear holds a card saying “Good Wishes From Everybody, 1910.”
Cartoonist Clifford Berryman shares the feeling of exhaustion of many parents on Christmas Day due to preparations for the holiday and buying presents for the family. In this cartoon, an exhausted Santa catches up on his sleep in his rocking chair after a long night bringing presents to children everywhere. Their happy faces are seen in the background.
Original caption: Mary Virginia Shaver, Newport News, Virginia, and Peggy Wilbur, Glens Falls, New York, both of the Port Ration Office, are shown decorating the Christmas tree in their office, Building 2, HRPE. Official photograph U.S. Army Signal Corps, Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation, Newport News, Virginia
#OTD 100 years ago, this advertisement for Christmas
gifts targeted toward children ran in The Pennsylvania Farmer. Headquartered in
Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Farmer was a popular newspaper that was
distributed throughout the state and provided crucial information about
livestock sales, emerging agricultural techniques and other pertinent material
to readers. This advertisement encourages children to sign up their friends and
neighbors for subscriptions to the magazine in order to earn one of these items
as rewards.
This post was written by Megan Kelly, Research and Writing
Intern with the National Archives at Philadelphia.
Citation: Pennsylvania Farmer Weekly Newspaper Vol. 44 – No.
24; Milk Department; 185; Historical Materials, Pennsylvania, Division of Press
News; Record Group 04 Food Administration; National Archives at Philadelphia
(614521) and (PH-30).
Personnel of USS LEXINGTON celebrate Christmas with make-shift decorations and a firefighting, helmeted Santa Claus., National Archives Identifier 520912
Someone in the Office of War Information (OWI) News Bureau was certainly having a jolly old time on Christmas Eve 1942, when they wrote this memorandum concerning rumors flying around (by way of a reindeer-led sled) about a “man in whiskers who … will come down many chimneys bringing gifts to hundreds of American homes.”
Memorandum, December 24, 1942, file Santa Claus, Correspondence of the Chief, News Bureau, Entry NC-148-175, National Archives Identifier 895707, RG 208: Records of the Office of War Information, National Archives.
This tongue-in-cheek report from the OWI News Bureau, which administered information programs to promote the U.S. Government’s war policies and activities, was composed by staff to poke fun at their own bureaucracy. However, even the report’s light-hearted analysis of the “facts” about Santa Claus reveals serious concerns the U.S. dealt with during World War II, including morale, wartime shortages, and the preservation of the Allied alliance.
This featured document is currently on display at the National Archives Building in Washington, DC.
“I give you a message of cheer. I cannot say “Merry Christmas,” for I think constantly of those thousands of soldiers and sailors who are in actual combat throughout the world; but I can express to you my thought that this is a happier Christmas than last year – happier in the sense that the forces of darkness stand against us with less confidence in the success of their evil ways.”
