Rosie The Riveter In Long Beach

During World War II, an unprecedented number of women took jobs at aircraft plants, shipyards, munitions factories, and other concerns across the nation to produce material essential to winning the war. Affectionately and collectively called aRosie the Rivetera after a popular 1943 song, thousands of these women came to the U.S. Armyafinanced Douglas Aircraft Plant in Long Beach, the largest wartime plane manufacturer, to help produce an astonishing number of the aircraft used in the war. They riveted, welded, assembled, and installed, doing man-sized jobs, making attack bombers, other war birds, and cargo transports. They trained at Long Beach City Schools and worked 8- and 10-hour shifts in a windowless, bomb-proof plant. Their children attended Long Beach Day Nursery, and their households ran on rations and victory gardens. When the men came home after the war ended, most of these resilient women lost their jobs.

By 1920, when Ameila Earhart attended Earl S. Daughertyas air circus and then took her first airplane ride with Long Beach Poly High School graduate Frank Hawks, Long Beach was already a key part of the golden age of aviation. Balloonists had parachuted onto the cityas beaches in 1905 near the Pine Avenue Pier, and stunt pilots such as Frank Stites took off and landed on its sands in 1908. The Long Beach Chamber of Commerce sponsored the altitude contest won by Arch Hoxsey in the second Los Angeles Air Meet in 1910. Cal Rodgers ended the first transcontinental flight in the water near Linden Avenue on December 10, 1911. A former Army Air Corps flight instructor, Earl Daugherty was known as the agreatest stunt pilota and owned the areaas first non-beach airfield. This volume offers glimpses of early aviation at one of its core development locales, including photographs never before published of Earhartas flight instructor, John G. Montijo.

Few other cities can boast of the natural assets, the people, and the events that shaped the first 50 years of their history, as can the city of Long Beach, California. First inhabited by the Tongva people, the land was taken away by the Spanish, then granted to "friends of the King," who in turn sold parcels to real estate speculators working with the railroads. It was called many names before Belle Lowe suggested in 1884 that the townsite be known for its eight miles of long beaches. Its oceanfront provided a resort area, a landing strip for early aviators, a fishing industry, a port for shipbuilding and trade, and a location for the US Navy to anchor its "battle fleet" in 1919. However, discovery of oil in 1921 transformed the city, bringing incredible wealth and an explosive growth in population. By 1938, the city's population was 200,000 and would be a major factor in the Southern California war effort.

From Coveralls to Zoot Suits: The Lives of Mexican American Women on the World War II Home Front

The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published daily when Congress is in session. The Congressional Record began publication in 1873. Debates for sessions prior to 1873 are recorded in The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States (1789-1824), the Register of Debates in Congress (1824-1837), and the Congressional Globe (1833-1873)

Flying was a perilous adventure, with death only a small breath away. Many lost their lives in pursuit of their dream and have remained relatively forgotten, until now. (italics until now) Aviation fever struck young and old alike, especially after the four Dominguez Air Meets held in Southern California between 1910-1913. It inspired many such as the Birnie and French brothers, Charles Day, and Glenn Martin to build their own air ships. For others like Frank Champion, Long Beachs first airman, it meant learning from the best---traveling to London, England, to study with Louis Bleriot, and going on to teach others, such as Long Beach Airport founder Earl Daugherty, to fly. There were also daring women: Tiny and Ethel Broadwick, who parachuted out of airplanes when many men refused to do so because they considered it too dangerous; Gladys ODonnell instrumental in founding the Womens Air Derby; World War II ferrying pilots, led by Barbara Erickson London, whose service to America was not recognized until 1977; Dianna Bixby and Joan Merriam Smith trying to complete Amelia Earharts dream of circumnavigating the globe. Soaring Skyward (italics for title) introduces remarkable men and women who embraced the dangers and challenges of flight. It also tells the story of the Long Beach Municipal Airport, the center of much of Southern Californias aviation history. The early days of ballooning, air circuses, parachute jumps, barnstorming, air meets, forgotten military sites and much more are all explored in this well documented look into the past, and future, of aviation in Southern California. After twenty years of extensive research, Ms. Burnetts book is sure to open up new sources of information for aviation and history enthusiasts, and most definitely shed additional light on the past.

This book interrogates why feminist memories matter. Feminist Afterlives explores how the images, ideas and feelings of past liberation struggles become freshly available and transmissible. In doing so, Red Chidgey examines how popular feminist memories travel as digital and material resources across protest, heritage, media, commercial and governmental sites, and in connection with the concerns and conditions of the present. Central case studies track repeated invocations to militant suffragettes and the We Can Do It! post-feminist icon over time and space. Assembling interviews, archival research and ethnographic accounts with provocative examples drawn from postfeminist media culture, a UNESCO heritage bid, protest at the London 2012 Olympic Games, and activist remembrance in zines and blogs, this is a broad-ranging study of ‘restless’ feminist pasts – both real and imagined. Richly researched and argued, this volume offers an original framework of ‘assemblage memory’ and sets out a new research agenda for the intersections between everyday activism, protest, and memory practices.

The women who tell their stories in this extraordinary oral history worked in World War II defense plants.