Fighting On All Fronts: Women At War exhibition article - Wartime Poster Model

Wartime Poster Model

This patriotic poster featuring a photograph by the notable commercial photographer William Ritter shows a 17-year-old medical college student, Weslee Wootten, as the nurse. Weslee Wootten (D'Audney) earned her university fees as a model for magazine adverts and fashion shows. The photo shoot for this image, issued by the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency, had to follow an exact drawing of a nurse with a man’s stars and stripes sleeves approved by Washington. Distributed in libraries, post offices and other public buildings around the country, Become a Nurse Your Country Needs You (1942), became one of the most popular and iconic posters for the war.