We Can Do It!

© 2023 McGaw Graphics, Inc.

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About the Artist

J. Howard Miller (1918 – 2004) was an American graphic artist. He painted posters during World War II in support of the war effort, among them the famous We Can Do It! poster, frequently misidentified as Rosie the Riveter. Miller was based in Pittsburgh during the war. His work came to the attention of the Westinghouse Company (later, the Westinghouse War Production Co-Ordinating Committee), and he was hired to create a series of posters. The posters were sponsored by the company's War Production Co-Ordinating Committee, one of the hundreds of labor-management committees organized under the supervision of the national War Production Board. He based the "We Can Do It!" poster on a United Press International (UPI) picture taken of Geraldine Doyle working at a factory. At the time of the poster’s release the name "Rosie" wasn't associated with the picture; that came later when a popular patriotic song called “Rosie the Riveter” was released and Norman Rockwell painted his Rosie the Riveter. Although the "We Can Do It!" image is famous today, during the war it was just one of many in Miller's series. The poster itself was not widely known on the home front because it was shown only at Westinghouse, and because it was posted for only two weeks (followed by the next poster in the series).