The Victory Home:
Conservation--Metal

Poster: Help Bring Them Back to You! Make Yours a Victory Home!

Metal was needed for all kinds of war materials, from guns and grenades to planes and ships. Some sources of metal ore were blocked by enemy actions, so conservation and reuse were important. Scrap drives collected metals of all kinds.

Stories

Photos

Posters

Pamphlets

Audio

Ads

Poster image is courtesy of the Northwestern University Library poster database .

Free Web Hosting Services provided by the Buffalo Free-Net.

Updated 11/12/04.
Page created by Midge Coates
Home

Stories

“Scrap Your Fat, Lady!”

Photos

These photos are in the National Archives ARC Digital Copies collection.

Harvesting bumper crop for Uncle Sam. Movie star Rita Hayworth sacrificed her bumpers for the duration. Besides setting an example by turning in unessential metal car parts, Miss Hayworth has been active in selling war bonds.

New York City's Aluminum Collection. The aluminum collected will be used to replace new aluminum in the manufacture of comsumer goods.

This collection was conducted by the Office of Civilian Defense and some of the aluminum obtained will be used in industries producing for National Defense.

Vital tin and alloy metals are conserved by this procedure.

What's a home without its sidewalk scrap pile? Junior Commandos of Roanoke, Va., see to it that each home has given enough scrap to make the scrap collectors monthly visit worthwhile.

A couple of husky Junior Commandos add to a neighborhood scrap pile in Roanoke, Va. Bedsprings, coal buckets, bird cages, stoves -- no piece of unused metal is safe from the hands of these patriotic youngsters, who are out to see that their older brothers in the armed forces have the guns and ships and ammunition they need to beat the Axis.

The charge of the scrap brigade in Roanoke, Virginia, includes such methods of collecting as this pony cart. The patriotic and energetic youngsters of the town are making an all-out effort to corner every available piece of scrap in the city, so their soldier and sailor brothers will have the shells and guns and tanks with which to beat the Axis.

Young America, bare feet and all, made a gala event of the Hattiesburg, Mississippi parade which featured the drive for scrap rubber and metals.

The many tons of scrap metal and rubber collected during the salvage drive in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, were carried through the city in an impressive truck parade.

A Detroit Auto Graveyard -- junked autos and trucks to be shipped to scrap yards and then to the Great Lakes Steel Plant.

Hundreds of junked cars were denied to the war effort by the Lennox Motor Company in Maryland. The owner refused to sell at the established junk prices.

Recovery of tin from squeezed out toothpaste and other collapsible metal tubes begins at drug and other stores where the critical metal is collected under the tube-for-tube exchange plan.

These photos are in the American Memory collection, America from the Great Depression to World War II: Photographs from the FSA/OWI, 1935-1945 . Click on the thumbnail to see a larger image. (To see more images, search collection using keywords, scrap metal, metal salvage , scrap collection, shortages. )

Washington, D.C. Scrap salvage campaign, Victory Program. Unloading scrap at a wholesale junkyard.
Photo 1 , 2

Washington, D.C. Scrap salvage campaign, Victory Program. Using acetylene torch to break up metal scrap before shipment from a wholesale junk yard.

Washington, D.C. Scrap salvage campaign, Victory Program. This mother has found in her closet some metal hangers, which her son will stack in the cellar for contribution in the scrap collecting campaign.

Washington, D.C. Scrap salvage campaign, Victory Program. Car headlights glare up among objects in wholesale junkyard.

Washington, D.C. Scrap salvage campaign, Victory Program. "Old Ironsides" is written on this stove found in warehouse of wholesale junk dealer.

Washington, D.C. Salvage drive, Victory Program. Aluminum kitchen utensils and scrap paper stored in warehouse of District wholesale junk company.

Lititz, PA. Scrap collection drive. Each household placed its contribution on the sidewalk. It was then picked up by local trucks whose owners had volunteered their services for civilian defense. The scrap outside a plumber's house consists of pipes.

Lititz, PA. The pile of scrap is part of curb scrap drive.

Lititz, PA. In curb scrap collection drive, one housewife donated a sewing machine.

Norwich, CT (vicinity). Swedish children gathering scrap for victory in the salvage drive.

Detroit, MI. Scrap collected for salvage at a rally sponsored by the Work Projects Administration (WPA) at the state fairgrounds.

Butte, MT. Unloading scrap from trucks during the scrap salvage campaign.
Photo 1 , 2 , 3

Notions which have not been curtailed by the War Production Board in consequence of metal shortages.
Photo 1 , 2 , 3

Lititz, PA. These are the last aluminum and enamel ware utensils which Morris Kreider's hardware store will be able to get for the duration of the war. Usually he keeps his storeroom as well as the shelves well stocked.

Posters

These posters are in the Northwestern University Library collection. Click on the thumbnail to see a larger image.

These posters are in the American Memory collection By the People, For the People: Posters from the WPA, 1936-1943 . Click on the thumbnail to see a larger image.

Are you helping? with salvage

Salvage scrap to blast the jap

Save scrap for victory! : Save metals, save paper, save rubber, save rags

These posters are in the Minneapolis Public Library's Posters of the Second World War collection.

Save your cans

The Buzzard waits for waste

Homemaker's war guide

Pamphlets

This pamphlet is in the Western Historical Manuscript Collection in Columbia, MO .

Why Save Tin Cans

You'll need Adobe Acrobat to view these documents.
Click here for a free download of Adobe Acrobat Reader.

These pamphlets are in the Central Libraries of Southern Methodist University collection.