Section 2
The New York Home Front, 1942–45

Symbolic of the war material America is shipping to the faraway fronts where the United Nations are fighting are these loaded hand trucks being pushed down New York’s Fifth Avenue in the mighty war parade, June 13, 1942. National Archives (208-MO-121A-2390).
Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor brought the U.S. into the worldwide conflict, thereby ending debate over American involvement. The government quickly mobilized the country for war.

John Albok, Waiting for the Parade, Italian Village, 105th Street, 1943. New-York Historical Society, Gift of Ilona Albok Vitarius.
Section Two starts with “Victory Begins at Home”—a look at how the “war emergency” changed the routines of daily life. Rationing, conservation of resources, civil defense activities, war bond sales, huge patriotic rallies, and the ubiquitous presence of service flags hanging in apartment windows meant that the war’s many sacrifices were omnipresent. Madison Square Garden hosted remarkable events like the 1943 pageant “We Will Never Die,” which marked growing public awareness of the Nazi campaign to murder the Jews of Europe. Business no longer proceeded as usual for institutions like the New-York Historical Society, where a Red Cross bandage-rolling center opened on the ground floor. A fascinating mix of objects and graphic materials, including ration cards, an air raid siren, V-mail, and an Army helmet prototype produced at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, recall these developments.
![Official U.S. Navy Photograph. [Hazel Licuori raises her helmet and takes a breath before resuming her job as an oxyacetylyne burner], 1944. New-York Historical Society. Official U.S. Navy Photograph. [Hazel Licuori raises her helmet and takes a breath before resuming her job as an oxyacetylyne burner], 1944. New-York Historical Society.](https://wwii.nyhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/5-150x150.jpg)
Official U.S. Navy Photograph. [Hazel Licuori raises her helmet and takes a breath before resuming her job as an oxyacetylyne burner], 1944. New-York Historical Society.
![Signal Corps United States Army, [Army truck prepared for shipment overseas]. Photography Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. At Port Johnston Terminal, men and women prepared tanks, jeeps, and other combat vehicles for travel. Signal Corps United States Army, [Army truck prepared for shipment overseas]. Photography Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. At Port Johnston Terminal, men and women prepared tanks, jeeps, and other combat vehicles for travel.](https://wwii.nyhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/6-150x150.jpg)
Signal Corps United States Army, [Army truck prepared for shipment overseas]. Photography Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

Andreas Feininger (1906–1999), Statue of Liberty during Dim-Out. New-York Historical Society. © Andreas Feininger/Bonni Benrubi Gallery.
The Battle of the Atlantic brought the war to New York’s shores, and the display of the same name explores the city’s role in the longest campaign of the war. To unleash the great port’s power and get men and material safely to North Africa and Europe, the battle against the German U-boats had to be won. The display features an 18-foot-long mural of an armed merchant convoy laden with supplies as it departs from New York harbor, a rare German Enigma code machine, and many more artifacts and stories.
New Yorkers also mobilized to entertain and welcome the servicemen and servicewomen visiting on leave or en route to war.
The “On the Town” display—presented as a Travelers Aid information booth for servicemen—showcases the inviting activities the city had to offer. Posters for the theater, visits to museums, invitations to roller rinks and restaurants, sightseeing discounts, free drinks at nightclubs, baseball tickets, and more, awaited those in uniform. William Henry Johnson’s painting of jitterbugging at the Savoy Ballroom is one element of the spectacular mix. Three short films explore in more depth how New York’s theatrical community interacted with the troops in places like the Stage Door Canteen and through productions like Irving Berlin’s This Is the Army and the homemade “soldier shows” that took place everywhere that American troops fought.