Women, War and the Press

Booking Deadline Looms for LC Traveling WWII Exhibit

Reservations for the Library of Congress's WWII traveling exhibit, "Women Come to the Front: Female Journalists, Photographers and Broadcasters in World War II," can still be made for selected portions of 1996, 1997 and 1998. For booking information, contact Jennifer Bride, 202/707-1993, or Kathi Brown at KathiBrown@aol.com as soon as possible. Please be sure to include a daytime telephone number in any e-mail. The show is available to museums, libraries, schools, other public venues and corporate galleries.

"Women Come to the Front" highlights the struggles of female journalists of WWII to overcome the objections of male bosses, colleagues and military officials in order to contribute their talents to the task of recording one of the world's most devastating wars. The LC show draws on unpublished writings, photographs, diaries, and broadcasts to tell the personal stories of eight female war correspondents who covered the front lines overseas and the factory lines at home during WWII, winning by-lines, military decorations and public fame along the way.

Therese Bonney turned her camera to the job of creating compelling photoessays of civilian lives disrupted by the onslaught of war. Esther Bubley and Dorothea Lange stayed Stateside for the duration, capturing with their lenses the saga of a country mobilizing for global conflict. Clare Boothe Luce trotted the world for Life magazine, while fashion photographer Toni Frissell passed up Palm Beach to focus on the Red Cross, WACs and African-American fighter pilots. May Craig traveled the war zones for Gannett, while Janet Flanner and Mary Marvin Patterson found themselves reporting live from hot spots across Europe for radio audiences back home.

Said American expatriate photojournalist Therese Bonney of her war reportage in 1943: "It is hard, hard work--bristling with risks--lucky if you come out of it, but a magnificent chance to contribute your brains and talent to a great cause, the world's--really a privilege."

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