Charlotte Matthai found inspiration for her University of Pennsylvania senior thesis project during a research venture that took her to museums in three states.

During five days in late August, Matthai visited the Crystal Bridges Art Museum in Bentonville, Ark., Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington and The National World War II Museum and Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans.

“This was time set aside to learn and to think,” says Matthai of Merion, Pa., who’s majoring in history of art and political science in the School of Arts and Sciences. “It was good traveling alone because I could focus on enjoying these awesome museums and talking to curators.” 

Through a History of Art Department Thune Travel Fellowship, Matthai studied advertising and government-propaganda art related to World War II-era depictions of women.

At the Delaware Art Museum, she studied the history of illustration in magazines and advertising.

“The golden age of illustration stemmed from Howard Pyle, considered the father of American illustration, from 1870 to 1910,” says Matthai. “Norman Rockwell represented the last real respected and popular illustrator, because after Pyle illustration wasn’t considered ‘fine art.’ It was looked down upon because it was more for commercial use especially as advertising became more prominent.” 

Through letters, oral histories, photos and artwork in the New Orleans museums, Matthai gained a better understanding of what the men and women of that era experienced. 

At the time, women’s roles were changing partly because men left home to serve during the war. Some women took jobs formerly held by men in factories and shipyards to produce munitions and other supplies. 

During the war, ads and posters showed images of women employed in factories in jobs such as riveters to encourage women to take on those positions. 

The main focus of Matthai’s exploration was Norman Rockwell’s “Rosie the Riveter.”  Rockwell’s painting shows a muscular woman wearing work overalls, eating a sandwich, with a copy of Hitler’s Mein Kampf under her foot and a large rivet gun on her lap. The painting was originally on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post on Memorial Day weekend of 1943.

“Within this image there are allusions to other art historical moments, such as the similarity in her pose to Michelangelo’s image of the prophet Isaiah in the Sistine Chapel,” says Matthai. “It’s pretty much the same pose, but he slightly changed it.”

At the Crystal Bridges Art Museum, home to Rockwell’s painting, Matthai closely studied the piece by taking notes and then sketching it on a notepad. 

“By sketching it, I noticed a lot more,” says Matthai. “Her face is very visibly dirty. But, something more subtle is she had red painted fingernails, and her lips are painted and her hair is done nicely. The handkerchief in her pocket is actually very clean compared to the rest of her. I think Rockwell included it to show a feminine side of her, that we can do typically jobs that are for men but also maintain our femininity in this new environment.”

Other artists have created different versions of the “Rosie the Riveter” character, which is based on a song about a tireless factory worker. Matthai believes that Rockwell’s version brings women into a new light.

“Her actions aren’t noble, but she’s looking proud. She’s almost looking down her nose at something. You don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s because she’s stepping on a copy of Mein Kampf and is looking down at Hitler. I think that leaves it up to the interpretation of the viewer to see something.”

Through Matthai’s experiences at the museums, she now has other avenues to consider for her thesis.

“I had been thinking about women in propaganda in the World War II era, but after talking to these curators it opened my eyes to seeing it not as an isolated area. I see it as a whole puzzle.”

She’s now considering several possible topics for her thesis, including how advertising influenced the feminist movement, the art of illustration, female illustrators of the 1940s or the work of a specific artist, such as Norman Rockwell.