5/14/22


October 1941 The American Legion Magazine

In the months following Pearl Harbor, thousands of men enlisted in the armed forces. Many artists joined up and began to practice their trade as soldier-artists by decorating barracks and mess halls with murals depicting military subjects. Some of these painters became the nucleus of the art programs established by the War Department in 1942 and 1943. While the army project was cancelled by Congress in August 1943, a number of artists were taken on by Life magazine and other publications. The army reinstated an art program in 1944 which lasted through the duration of the war. Other artists could be found in the ranks of the Marine Corps, the Women's Army Corps, the Army Air Corps and the Coast Guard, while still others served in combat battalions, camouflage units, or as official photographers.