Seeds of Victory

Archive City's references to the Victory Garden got me thinking about Land Girls. I am doing research on designing a costume for the Neighborhood Bee Watch and I thought about referencing their standard wardrobe. I didn't think about wearing a flag as an evening gown while sowing wheat, but I like the opium-glazed look in Miss America's eyes and her jaunty red cap, full of bonhommie. "Every Garden a Munition Plant." Gulp. Well, maybe for Monsanto.

Talk about jaunty! These ladies from Bellingham have spirit. The Bedfordshire Women's Land Army even had their own song.

This is by a Canadian painter: Land Girls Hoeing was painted in 1919 by Manly MacDonald.It's owned by The Canadian War Museum, Beaverbrook Collection, where you can buy a print of it in three different sizes from their Cyberboutique.

This one gives me the shivers.

I admire her sartorial elegance under the conditions.

This looks like a World War I Land Girl Poster.

The Crop Corps--has a nice ring, doesn't it? Nice sincere folks from the Midwest in clean, white shirts growin' corn in the Crop Corps. They look like they're about to break into song.

This is Betty May Wyatt from Berkshire England. On the BBC Home site she describes her experience as a Land Girl and provides a list of her work clothing.

The issue consisted off:

2 green jerseys
2 pairs of breeches
2 overall coats
2 pairs of dungarees
6 pairs of thick stockings
3 shirts
1 pair of stout shoes
1 pair of gumboots
Green Women’s Land Army armlet
Women’s Land Army metal badge

She goes on to say she should have been issued an over coat but they had run out, so she bought a riding jacket in the meantime. Looks like in warm weather they wore overalls and blouses with their kerchiefs and in cold weather they had blouses under wool sweaters and jodphurs with thick wool socks. The days when they just had light work they wore shirt -dresses and kerchiefs. What amazing lives these women led. You can tell from the photos they thrived on the sense of camaraderie, leaning on each other in hard times.