Some of you may have seen this picture before. It shows women workers from Smith & Wesson marching in a Victory parade in Springfield MA, in April 1942. I posted it in a previous thread. I now have it in a frame along with an original sash seen in the picture, along with a Smith & Wesson Victory model I just bought. I think it makes a neat display.

Attached Images

	Victory Model display 001.jpg (49.5 KB, 120 views)
	Victory Model display 002.jpg (52.7 KB, 104 views)

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Don Mundell

Looks great.

Outstanding! This shows that you are really interested in the whole context, not just getting a gun that is cool. How about a little more back story on the sash and picture and how you got them to go with the overall package? Is your mother, grandmother, aunt, etc one of the victorious ladies marching?

Froggie

Very cool! I agree with Froggie - more info!

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High Caliber History

Nice collage of unique memorabilia and a great S&W revolver. Love the slogan in the pic "a gun of distinction for axis extinction"

I had to get my magnifying glass out to read it, but that's what it says. Maybe you should scan that picture for the rest of us.

This is a close up of the picture of the Smith & Wesson group in the "VICTORY PARADE", on April 20, 1942. It was the first such parade in the nation. I believe the lady on the far left front is Mildred Trench, Douglas Wesson's secretary. The hats they are wearing have USA pins on them. There is a second group of Smith & Wesson workers seen in the picture. They are just coming out from under the "ARCH". That sign reads in part ".....SMITH & WESSON ARE DOING THE..PART ...THE AXIS APPLE CART." This second picture is of the same parade. It claims that 15,000 people from all type's of manufacturers took part in the parade, watched by 100,000 people. The parade took two and one half hours to complete.

Attached Images

	Springfield Victory Parade front 1.jpg (255.2 KB, 41 views)
	Victory parade side 1.jpg (80.7 KB, 44 views)

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Don Mundell

Great old pictures. I suppose a large percentage of S&W's workforce during the war was made up of women, as it was in many other defense plants. Several years ago I worked on a project to perform an environmental cleanup on the largest smokeless powder plant in the US during WWII, which produced over one million pounds per day. In many areas of the plant, over 2/3rds of the wartime workforce were women. In particular there was a huge area where artillery powder bags were sewn, and there, about 90% of the workers were women. Thousands of women worked there 24/7. I was told that it was the largest single industrial building in the country at that time having air conditioning, as temperature and humidity in the sewing areas had to be extremely tightly controlled.

I had an aunt that worked in the Remington (?) plant in Denver during the war.

This is a poster from WWII.

Attached Images

She's a WOW.jpg (58.2 KB, 21 views)

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Don Mundell