Online Archive of University of Virginia Scholarship
Photographing "Government Girls:" Esther Bubley, Wartime Femininity, and the Office of War Information544 views
Author
Beadle, Meaghan, History - Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Virginia
Advisors
Hale, Grace, Department of History, University of Virginia
Abstract
While working for the Office of War Information in 1943, Esther Bubley made photographs of young women working and living in Washington, D.C. Her photography distinctively depicts a woman’s view of wartime femininity and female sexuality that is grounded in her status as a young woman who is, in many ways, a prime example of her single female subjects. Reading Bubley’s images in the contexts of her personal history, the broader social history, and the visual culture of her time allows for a fuller understanding of her photography that moves past the superficial and accesses a new visual record of wartime gender roles that counters imagery of women that men made for government propaganda and mass media.
Degree
MA (Master of Arts)
Rights
All rights reserved (no additional license for public reuse)
Beadle, Meaghan. Photographing "Government Girls:" Esther Bubley, Wartime Femininity, and the Office of War Information. University of Virginia, History - Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, MA (Master of Arts), 2014-04-22, https://doi.org/10.18130/V30W9P.