Girls at War > History

On December 7, 1942, the devastating attack of the Japanese on Pearl Harbor occurred, throwing the United States into the midst of World War II. The United States became a part of the Allied forces, and four days later, Germany also declared war on the U.S. Soldiers from all over America prepared to go to war, moving troops into parts of Europe and Southeast Asia. And along with them, when the beaming, radiant faces of pin-up girls.

Along side photos of family and letters from home, soldier's hung pin-up girls torn from magazines and advertisements. The girls became a source of moral and uplift. Wrote one soldier: "What legs they had though! It's all in fun and this is what makes a lot of us forget when the war is going to end" (Collins, 23).

Pin-up art was prominently featured among the soldiers. They could be found on matchboxes and walls, were worn as patches or airbrushed onto jackets, and painted onto the sides of planes as nose art. The faces of models such as Betty Grable and Rita Haywood were very common, but along side these images were also the work of artists Alberto Vargas and George Petty.