Based on a 1941 OWI photograph by Alfred T. Palmer, reimagined in the style of Norman Rockwell.
In this image, a uniformed police officer inspects a shotgun beneath a wartime propaganda poster that reads: “Men Working Together!” The poster behind him shows a trio of determined faces: a factory worker, a soldier, and a sailor — unified in spirit and effort, reminders of a nation mobilized for total war.
The officer himself is calm and methodical, absorbed in the task at hand. He isn’t posing. He isn’t posturing. He’s preparing. The weapon is not brandished; it is checked. The badge on his chest glints against dark blue wool. His belt holds a club, a flashlight, and the burden of responsibility.
“So that men may work together, this sentinel keeps vigil at a large defense plant against saboteurs.” That was the original caption. The plant was the White Motor Company in Cleveland, Ohio — a major producer of trucks and machinery for the war effort. In the eyes of the government and the press, men like this officer weren’t just security — they were part of the national defense.
This reinterpretation leans into the visual language of Rockwell: rich shadows, soft skin tones, expressive hands, brick and brass and all the iconography of working-class pride. But beneath the warmth lies the tension of the 1940s. The war wasn’t just over there. It was here, too — in locker rooms, on loading docks, and behind locked doors in dim-lit precinct stations.
What’s striking about this moment — now captured in color and oil-textured form — is the quiet assertion that civilian duty and military duty were part of the same national effort. While the men in the poster stared out boldly into the imagined future, the man in front of it was holding the line at home.
“Men Working Together.” The phrase lands differently now. It’s no longer just about victory abroad — it’s about the work required to hold a society together when the world tilts hard and fast. It’s about shared responsibility, unglamorous and essential.
This is The Past, Reimagined Like Rockwell #3.
Original Source Information
- Photographer: Alfred T. Palmer
- Creation Date: December 1941
- Original Caption: “So that men may work together, this sentinel keeps vigil at a large defense plant against saboteurs. White Motor Company, Cleveland, Ohio.”
- Affiliated Agency: United States. Office for Emergency Management
- Medium: 1 nitrate negative, 4 x 5 inches
- Library of Congress Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-fsa-8e10709
- Call Number: LC-USE6- D-003238 [P&P] LOT 2039
- Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
- More about the collection: FSA/OWI Collection Information
