Maryland at War Maryland State Archives 350 Rowe Boulevard Annapolis, MD 21401 Phone: (410) 260-6400 Internet: mdsa.net e-mail: archives@mdsa.net

National History Standards

Materials compiled in this document can be used by educators to fulfill the following National History Standards for Grades 5-12:

Era 8: The Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945)

STANDARD 3: The causes and course of World War II, the character of the war at home and abroad, and its reshaping of the U.S. role in world affairs. 

Standard 3C: The student understands the effects of World War II at home.

5-12: Explain how the United States mobilized its economic and military resources during World War II. [Utilize visual and quantitative data] 
7-12: Evaluate how minorities organized to gain access to wartime jobs and how they confronted discrimination. [Formulate a position or course of action on an issue] 
7-12: Analyze the effects of World War II on gender roles and the American family. [Compare and contrast differing sets of ideas] 

Primary Resources

1. DESCRIPTION: Photograph, Bethlehem steel mill. Sparrows Point, Maryland
   DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: September 1940
   SOURCE: America from the Great Depression to World War II: Black-and-White Photographs from the FSA-OWI, 1935-1945
   REPOSITORY: Library of Congress

2. DESCRIPTION: Photograph, African American bomber plant workers. Graduates of war training course are shown attaching skins to the fins of medium bombers in a large Eastern aircraft plant. Glenn L. Martin Bomber Plant. Baltimore, Maryland
   DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: May 19, 1942
   SOURCE: Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection
   REPOSITORY: Library of Congress

3. DESCRIPTION: Photograph, African American bomber plant workers. American manpower teaming up to beat the Axis. African American and white employees of a large Eastern aircraft factory work together in attaching skins to the fins of medium bombers. Glenn L. Martin Bomber Plant. Baltimore, Maryland
   DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: May 19, 1942
   SOURCE: Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection
   REPOSITORY: Library of Congress

4. DESCRIPTION: Photograph, African American bomber plant workers. Conservation of rubber by American motorists makes possible these bomber tires, which are being assembled in a large Eastern aircraft plant. Workers are clamping on lock washers to the wheels before final assembly of the landing gear. Glenn L. Martin Bomber Plant. Baltimore, Maryland
   DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: May 19, 1942
   SOURCE: Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection
   REPOSITORY: Library of Congress 

5. DESCRIPTION: Photograph, African American bomber plant workers. Final assembly of the pilot's compartment is being made by these workers in a large Eastern aircraft factory. These youths went directly from a war training course to their jobs in this plant. Glenn L. Martin Bomber Plant. Baltimore, Maryland
   DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: May 19, 1942
   SOURCE: Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection
   REPOSITORY: Library of Congress 

6. DESCRIPTION: Photograph, bomber plant workers. American manpower draws its skills from various racial groups alike. Here, in a large Eastern bomber plant, huge transparent plastic bomber noses are being conditioned for installation on planes which will carry America's offensive to the far conrers of the world. Glenn L. Martin Bomber Plant. Baltimore, Maryland
   DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: May 19, 1942
   SOURCE: Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection
   REPOSITORY: Library of Congress 

7. DESCRIPTION: Photograph, aircraft workers. Workers of various races contribute their skills to war industry. To safeguard American cities against all contingencies, these workers in an Eastern arsenal are sewing hand harness tabs on gas masks, which are being turned out in mass production volume. Edgewood Arsenal. Edgwood, Maryland
   DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: May 1942
   SOURCE: Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection
   REPOSITORY: Library of Congress

8. DESCRIPTION: Photograph, Middle River, Maryland. Housing development for workers at the Glenn L. Martin aircraft plant. Front doors open to roads
   DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: July 1942
   SOURCE: America from the Great Depression to World War II: Black-and-White Photographs from the FSA-OWI, 1935-1945
   REPOSITORY: Library of Congress

9. DESCRIPTION: Photograph, Bethlehem-Fairfield shipyards, Baltimore, Maryland. African American women welders
   DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: May 1943
   SOURCE: Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection 
   REPOSITORY: Library of Congress

10. DESCRIPTION: Photograph, Bethlehem-Fairfield shipyards, Baltimore, Maryland. African American women working as chippers, removing beads after a joint has been welded
    DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: May 1943
    SOURCE: Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection
    REPOSITORY: Library of Congress

11. DESCRIPTION: Photograph, Baltimore, Maryland. Building the SS Frederick Douglas. More than 6,000 African American shipyard workers are employed at the Bethlehem-Fairfield shipyards, where the Liberty ship is being rushed to completion. The noted orator and abolitionist leader worked as a ship caulker in the vicinity of this yard before he escaped from slavery. Riveters Dave Martin and Walter Shired pose for cameraman
    DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: May 1943
    SOURCE: Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection
    REPOSITORY: Library of Congress

12. DESCRIPTION: Photograph, Baltimore, Maryland. Building the SS Frederick Douglass. A general view of the ship looking towards stern, as it appeared one week after the hull was laid. 
    DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: May 1943
    SOURCE: Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection
    REPOSITORY: Library of Congress

13. DESCRIPTION: Photograph, Middle River, Maryland. FSA (Farm Security Administration) housing project for Glenn L. Martin aircraft workers. Trailers in their lots.
    DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: August 1943
    SOURCE: America from the Great Depression to World War II: Black-and-White Photographs from the FSA-OWI, 1935-1945
    REPOSITORY: Library of Congress

14. DESCRIPTION: Photograph, Middle River, Maryland. A FSA (Farm Security Administration) housing project for Glenn L. Martin aircraft workers. A worker's family in their trailer home
    DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: August 1943
    SOURCE: America from the Great Depression to World War II: Black-and-White Photographs from the FSA-OWI, 1935-1945
    REPOSITORY: Library of Congress

Additional Instructional Resources 

Resources on Incorporating Primary Sources and Historic Sites in Classroom Instruction

The Learning Page: Lessons by Themes, Topics, Disciplines or Eras

Secondary Resources

Breihan, John, "Between Munich and Pearl Harbor: The Glenn L. Martin Aircraft Company Gears up for War, 1938-1941" Maryland Historical Magazine (Winter 1993): 389.

Callcott, George. Maryland & America: 1940 to 1980. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985.

Credits

Teaching American History in Maryland is a collaborative partnership of the Maryland State Archives and the Center for History Education (CHE), University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), and the following sponsoring school systems: Anne Arundel County Public Schools, Baltimore City Public School System, Baltimore County Public Schools, and Howard County Public Schools.

Other program partners include the Martha Ross Center for Oral History, Maryland Historical Society, State Library Resource Center/Enoch Pratt Free Library, with assistance from the National Archives and Records Administration and the Library of Congress. The program is funded through grants from the U.S. Department of Education.

An Archives of Maryland Online Publication
© Copyright, Maryland State Archives, June 23, 2004