Seton Hall professor sheds light on creator of ‘We Can Do It!’ poster

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SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — Seton Hall University professor James J. Kimble has again shed new light on the origins of the “We Can Do It!” poster commonly referred to as “Rosie the Riveter.”

Originally produced in 1943 by J. Howard Miller for the Westinghouse Corp. as part of the factory production effort during World War II, the “We Can Do It!” poster was mass-reproduced in the 1980s and came to be a revered representation of female empowerment. Although iconic, the model for the poster as well as its creator were long shrouded in mystery and misinformation.

Over the last decade, Kimble has painstakingly uncovered the truth behind the icon.

In 2018, his research on the identity of Rosie the Riveter went viral, appearing in People magazine, on the front page of the New York Times, on NPR and the television show “Mysteries at the Museum,” as well other assorted media across the globe.

Debunking the commonly held and much celebrated belief that a Michigan woman, Geraldine Hoff Doyle, was the model for the poster, Kimble unearthed the original photo that is believed to be the basis for the poster. The photograph Kimble discovered came complete with the original photographer’s caption tag affixed to the back, which names Naomi Parker, later Naomi Parker-Fraley in Alameda, Calif., as the subject of the photo — not Geraldine Hoff Doyle in Michigan. Fortunately, Parker-Fraley lived long enough to see the historic record set straight and her identity as “Rosie the Riveter” celebrated throughout the world.

In his most recent research, Kimble set his sights on setting the record straight on the poster’s creator, J. Howard Miller.

In “Famous but Unknown: An Introduction to J. Howard Miller,” published by the University of Chicago journal “Source: Notes in the History of Art,” Kimble noted: “The sparse information that has been published about Miller is tenuous at best. Some sources, for example, indicate that he was born in 1918 and died in 2004. Others only speculate, with ‘ca. 1915-1990’ being a common guess. None of these dates are correct. Some sources indicate that he graduated from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in 1939. He did attend that school, but many years earlier. Elsewhere, aside from reproductions of his most famous work, little but speculation about Miller’s life has appeared in print.

“Perhaps the most telling sign of Miller’s enduring mystery is the confusion over his likeness. Although his life span was in living memory, he remains astonishingly faceless. Worse, most of the sources that do attempt to convey his likeness make a critical error. One recent exhibition at a reputable museum, for example, featured a creator’s head shot next to a reproduction of the ‘We Can Do It!’ poster. It was actually an image of a much younger man — who was not even a graphic artist.”

In his research on Miller, Kimble draws “on obscure publications, archival sources and interviews to present a brief introduction to the elusive artist behind the icon” and produces for the public the only known portrait of Miller. In this portrait, an undated ad illustration, Miller inserted himself into the image as the self-assured, middle-aged barber in the foreground.

“Unfortunately for J. Howard Miller — and the historical record — there was a photographer with the same name born about 20 years after the graphic artist,” Kimble said. “The photographer’s obituary along with an image is readily available online. Couple that with the fact that the resurgence of the Rosie poster as an iconic figure of women’s empowerment did not occur until after the graphic artist’s death, and we have what could be described as ‘extremely fertile ground’ for Google-era misinformation. But hopefully, some old-fashioned research and this newly discovered portrait can set the record straight.”

  Seton Hall University