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June 1943. "Arlington, Virginia. Mirrors over the dressing table conceal a cabinet which gives girls extra space for their cosmetics, etc., at Arlington Farms, a residence for women who work in the government for the duration of the war." Medium-format negative by Esther Bubley for the Office of War Information. View full size.
Five of my great-uncles (all brothers) were in World War II. I have pictures of each of them in uniform in those cardboard flip-frames just like the ones here. My great-grandmother kept them on her mantel for years, long after the war was over.
Having lived in some very small efficiency (studio) apartments, I am not surprised to see food in the vanity cabinet.
Soup and cereal cheek-by-jowl with your bath salts and talcum powder? Mmmkay. Also is that three different fellows whose pictures are prominently displayed on the dressing table, or three views of the same guy? Inquiring minds want to know. Meanwhile we'll slather on a layer of Pacquins to keep those hands white as milk.
Wonder what people would say 80 years from now if they could see the inside of your homes today. We are so quick about others.
There's probably a bottle of milk outside on the window ledge, too.
I want to ask the question everyone is wondering about: what is a can of Campbell's Vegetable soup doing among the lotions and cosmetics?
Not one, not two, but three pictures of the loved one. And matches for the cigarettes, because being away from him is hard. Well done, fair lady.
Love that sweater, too. Nothing says "warmth" like even a thinner layer of wool like that.
A novel idea. They installed a bathroom medicine cabinet above the dressing table.
That Charlie McCarthy dressed to the nines for even the simplest occasion.
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