Geraldine Doyle

Geraldine Doyle (born July 31 1924, Inkster, Michigan) was the real-life model for the World War II era We Can Do It posters often confused with Rosie the Riveter. As of 2005, she lives in Lansing, Michigan.

Born as Geraldine Hoff, her father, Cornelious Hoff, was an electrical contractor who died of pneumonia when she was 10 years old. Her mother, Augusta, was a composer stricken with scoliosis. After graduating from high school in Ann Arbor, Doyle helped the American effort in World War II by working at a local factory in 1942. It was there that she met graphic artist J. Howard Miller, who used her portrait on his iconic poster.

In 1942, the 17 year-old Geraldine spent a week working in a Michigan factory pressing metal as an early replacement worker for men who had gone off to war. During her brief tenure, a wire photographer took a picture of her she soon forgot. That image - re-imagined by J. Howard Miller while working for theWestinghouse War Production Co-Ordinating Committee - would soon become iconic both for the war effort and for the forever changed society it fostered.

Geraldine Doyle didn't know she was the model for Rosie until 1984, when she came across the 1942 photograph in "Modern Maturity" Magazine. By 1944, a lot of women were working in factories and plants, instead of homes. Rosie the Riveter appeared on a postage stamp, part of a World War II series produced by the U.S. Postal Service, in 1992.

References

* [http://www.local602.org/LOTL/3-24-03LOTL.pdf UAW Local 602 Newsletter] - March 24, 2003 (PDF file)
* [http://www.michiganhistorymagazine.com/kids/pdfs/mhksp03c.pdf Michigan History for Kids] magazine - Spring 2003 (PDF file)
* [http://isd.ingham.k12.mi.us/~instech/evpeople.html#doyle2 Everyday People]
* [http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/46408 We Can Do It -- the tale of an iconic image]