Category — war gardens

Of Course I Can!

Image originally created for 1944 wartime use; used here for post-war famine prevention. (Original poster was titled, “Of Course I Can!”.

Creator: Williams, Dick.
United States. Dept. of Agriculture.
United States. President’s Famine Emergency Committee.
Advertising Council

Title: Waste Not Want Not: Prepare For Winter

Artist: Henderson, E.
Publisher: Canada Food Board, Ottawa
World War I — Canada Food Board;

19th June 1942: Waitresses from the ‘Quality Inn’ restaurant in Regent Street, London, watering and gathering tomatoes that are growing in boxes on the pavement as part of the ‘Dig For Victory’ scheme. (Photo by Paget/Fox Photos/Getty Images)

Let us farm our garden

Artiste: Louisette Jaeger, 14 ans
Ecole Communale de la Rue Camou
Editeur: Comité national de prévoyance et d’économies
Union française
Date: approx. 1915-1918 Paris
Notes: Affiche produite par une écolìère française.

Larger poster image here.

1943 Poster. Artist: Parker, Alfred, 1906-1985. United States. Office of War Information.

Antiquated canning makes a comeback

By Misty Harris
CanWest News Service
July 15, 2009

For a generation that made instant gratification its raison d’etre, the recent reclamation of canning – a domestic art that could be timed with a sundial – is nothing short of astounding.

Nielsen Canada reports this week that sales of canning accessories were up nearly 70 per cent in May over the same month last year, while June saw the category swell a whopping 88 per cent compared to the same period in 2008.

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Harris & Ewing Collection (Library of Congress) between 1910 and 1920
See larger image here.

Sheridan School War Gardens. Trespassers, Destroyers and Thieves. Beware $100. fine. One year imprisonment. Dogs are subject to the law. Keep them off.

“Dead Victory Garden”. The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Lithograph by Kenneth Hartwell

George Kenneth Hartwell (1891-1949) was born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. He was a painter, illustrator and printmaker. He studied at the Art Studies League of New York under George Bellows, Edward Hooper and others. Hartwell was an American Realist who rose to prominence during the Depression.

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1943 National Dairy Products Corporation and affiliated companies

“The Earth and I are friends now”

Last year I never thought of the earth except as something to walk on. But in the spring I turned up the sod and planted seed. Summer – grubbing for weeds and watching things grow – I got friendly with the land.

Well, it’s autumn now. The crop wasn’t big – but fair enough. And something good has happened to our family! We’ve weeded and watered and hoped together. And said our table blessing over our own harvest.

It seems to me that my family has come back to some important things. Come back to one another – and to our good soil. Come back to being neighbors with the family whose garden row begins where ours leaves off.

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Slightly larger image here.
Advertisement from the Victory Garden era.

Harvest Time, 1943
America makes the best of everything!

Americans are making the best use of their week-ends and vacations by helping bring in the crops. And many are making the best use of Schenley Royal Reserve by saving it for special occasions. All the Schenley distilleries are producing vital alcohol for war purposes only.

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Mary Pickford posing with a group of employees during her visit to the General Engineering Company (Canada) munitions factory, June 5, 1943
Larger image here.

Let’s Visit (1945) – This clip talks about the Victory Gardens at the General Engineering plant, Scarborough.

To listen to this excerpt in “wav” format (538K) click here.

See more about wartime production and women in war work here.

Larger version here.

World War II poster promoting home gardens so that food can be sent to refugees freed from Axis regions. 1944.

World War One Food Garden Parade. circa 1914.

Produce from village war gardens on display. Opens with parade. Man leading horse pulling a wagon of produce and Union Jack stuck on front. Boy Scouts walk behind the wagon carrying gardening tools and flags. Then a local marching band. This procession comes marching into town square; as other people watch. Lots of lettuces; other vegetables piled high on truck; pan to men standing beside truck; and another truck loaded up with marrows and potatoes and things — less leafy than the other one;

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Photo by M McNeill
18 Mar 1940

Ploughing Land
 
A tractor ploughing land beside Parliament Building (official residence of the Speaker of the House of Commons in Northern Ireland) on the Stormont Estate. The Northern Ireland Government is having the land ploughed as part of the ‘Grow More Food’ campaign.

Watch 1943 – You Cannot Eat Lilies – Victory Garden Video

Perhaps the weirdest Victory Garden video ever.
1943 Dig For Victory Leaflet No 1

Dialogue from the video.

“In spring this gardener sowed away
He meant to eat well every day.”

Gardener: Waiter,

Father Time: Yes Sir, coming Sir.
Your summer course Sir.
Pardon Sir, will you order your winter course now?
I say will you order your winter course now?

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