Please Avoid The Too Powdered Look.

How does one wear makeup in 1940? Well, like this of course:

I love the word rouge.

Common Goods: Girlie Show

These photos are from backstage at the Girlie Show that was part of the Vermont State Fair in September of 1941.







They sort of leave me speechless because they are so beautiful. So I'll let them do the talking to you. I'll just say that when they discover time travel, this is where you'll find me.

You can find these images right now in The Library of Congress Photo Stream on Flickr.

Common Goods: This Woman's Work

In the 1940s more than 6 million women entered the workforce for the first time, and soon it was coming up Rosies everywhere. While most new women workers were employees in non-factory settings, the attention was definitely on those who started riveting, assembling, packing, and operating machines in munitions plants and defense factories all over the country. They were the women who answered the government sponsored patriotic call to duty to pull on the pants in the family and take on jobs previously reserved for their suddenly far afield fathers, husbands, and brothers.

These women paved the way for the modern workplace with its equal pay protections, anti-discrimination laws, and opportunities. They also maintained their flair with red lips, gorgeous head scarves, up-dos, and nailpolish. They worked it.

These photos are from Flickr's Commons. Click any of the above images to learn some fascinating facts, and witness sometimes entertainingly inane public commentary.

Common Goods: Pie Town

Here are some great photos from The Commons over at Flickr. The backstory? Russell Lee was a photographer for the federally sponsored documentation team sent in 1940 to bear witness to the New Deal's Farm Security Administration. The FSA offered relief to impoverished rural farmers by relocating them into large communities on suitable farm land. The communtiy that Lee photographed was Pie Town in New Mexico, so named for a local dried-apple pie business and an annual Pie Fesitval held there every September. The photos of the relocated homesteaders at the tail end of The Depression are incredible. The use-everything, hand-sewn jumpers on the kids, the home-done shortbang, bowl haircuts, the colors of the printed fabrics, it's all gorgeous. I hope it doesn't sound insensitive to focus on the aesthetics of poverty, but the human experience in all of its forms fascinate me and there's always something beautiful to see. I hope you agree.

The Commons lets photo viewers add their comments, hoping to encourage people with knowledge on the topics to enrich the viewing experience. So, maybe you'll learn something by looking at aesthetically pleasing photos. I know I did.