Home Front Historical Posters designed by Spokewise.
New 2011 Poster!
WORKPLACE MAGIC
Henry J. Kaiser was a businessman who rose to prominence for his company's role in the construction of the iconic hydroelectric dams in the modern West-Hoover, Bonneville and Grand Coulee. In World War II, his reputation grew as a "modern wizard of production" who revolutionized shipbuilding for the Allied cause. After the War, Kiaser's global enterprises expanded to include automobiles, steel, cement, aluminum, engineering and mining, to name a few. Today, Henry Kaiser is remembered for his socially responsible approach to business - better wages and pensions, equal opportunity in the workforce, a collegial approach to negotiating with labor unions, grand experiments in workplace childcare, and for the health care program that bears his name - Kiaser Permanente. Keep the magic of opportunity in Richmond and celebrate its historic roots at the Home Front Festival By the Bay!
New 2011 Poster!
HEALTH CARE INNOVATION
Sidney R. Garfield, MD, entered the medical profession during the Great Depression when traditional fee for service care was woefully inadequate and there was a cry of new thinking in health care delivery. In the late 1930's and early '40s, Garfield creatively combined nominal prepayment insurance, physician group practice, and funding for clinical research and modern facilities into a design that became a high quality, affordable health care program for the employees of the Kaiser West Coast shipyards on the home front of World War II. Founded with industrialist, Henry J. Kaiser, the medical care program became what is now known as Kaiser Permanente. Today it provides health care for 8.7 million members from Washington DC, to Honolulu, Hawaii. And it all started right here in Richmond. Come celebrate the innovative spirit of our community at the Home Front Festival By the Bay!
WHO IS RICHMOND?
Before World War II, Richmond was the Native American tribe from the Southwest which lived near the Atchison-Topeka and the Santa Fe rail line. It was African American families who farmed the blocks of open land the city once held. It was Japanese American flower growers, and it was Italian merchants who pressed their own wine on weekends. During the war, Richmond became a town of immigrants - from El Paso and Arkansas, Louisiana and Eastern Europe - each bringing a new shade of personality to the booming town. Today Richmond is people from Laos and Cambodia, Guatemala and Mexico and every continent. That's what makes this place to celebrate; so let's get together and discover Richmond at the Home Front Festival.
A CITY FOR ALL
How big was Richmond in 1941? Just 23,000 people. By 1943, more than 100,000 had found their way to this quiet little city - 90,000 of them to build war vessels at the Kaiser Shipyards. Lucille Ziesenhenne worked at the California State Employment Office where hundreds would line up each morning. "It all happened so fast, we didn't have enough restaurants, housing, hospitals or schools, but a lot of good came of it. Kaiser hired women, African Americans and for the first time ever, people with physical disabilities, bringing about anti-discrimination laws." Come and discover how all those newcomers made the city the wonderful patchwork of color and culture that it is today at the Home Front Festival.
LOYALTY
They came to America from Asia…to fish, to farm, to mine and to pour sweat and blood into building the West. They were pioneers, and many settled in San Francisco. Yet, they were treated unequally and targeted with laws that countered the truths of the Constitution. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 cut off Chinese immigration. When WWII broke out, Executive Order 9066 forced 110,000 Japanese Americans into internment camps, destroying their communities. During this time, 2,000 Filipino American volunteers served in the US Army’s First Filipino Infantry Regiment. In the San Francisco Bay Area, 2,000 Chinese Americans went to work at the Kaiser Shipyards. By war’s end, a more just society was beginning to emerge. The repeal of anti-Asian immigration restrictions together with the passage of the War Brides Act of 1945 brought new hope for Asian Americans. Come learn about the loyalty of the Asian Americans and their role in the Home Front at the Home Front Festival.
CIVIL RIGHTS AND THE CALIFORNIA DREAM
People came by the thousands in search of the California Dream. Many, like Eddie Eaton who was born in Texas, had come from the segregated southern states. Learning to live together was difficult. Governor Earl Warren decided the schools weren't going to be segregated and told those who complained, "You can just travel right back to where you came from." "People said, 'we have a struggle and we're going to stand together,'" Eaton said. "They would go to each other and communicate with each other on the jobs. It seemed like a dream that things were happening here that wouldn't exist in other places." Come learn more about Richmond's dreams at the Home Front Festival.
SANTA FE INDIAN VILLAGE
An 1880 verbal treaty between Laguna Pueblo Indians in New Mexico allowed the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroads passage through their territory in exchange for railroad jobs. Every year they met to reaffirm their agreement; "watering the flower." Soon and entire Indian Village was created at the train yards in Richmond. Their homes were a cluster of converted boxcars where their families joined them along with neighboring Acoma Pueblo Indians. They maintained their rituals including "deer dinners," tribal meetings and "butterfly dances." During WWII, the men joined the military ranks and their women took over their railroad jobs, from signal tower operators and freight handlers to track sweepers. Their loyalty to the railroad changed Richmond forever. Come celebrate our diversity at the Richmond Home Front Festival.
WILD ROSES
Where in Richmond do roses bloom, twining wild through fields of glass? They're growing in old greenhouses of Richmond, remnants of a Japanese American flower-growing industry that thrived before World War II. Although Italians and Germans were also labeled "enemy aliens" after Pearl Harbor and forced to leave Richmond, the Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps. Despite these injustices, many eagerly returned to pick up the broken glass of their greenhouses and fill them with flowers again. Seizu Oishi and his family were among those who returned to Richmond. Some (like Seizu's son, Tom) even enlisted in the army to serve our country. They make up part of the beautiful bouquet of people and culture that Richmond is today. Come learn more and celebrate Richmond's history at the Home Front Festival.
VANISHING ISLAND
Where's Potrero Island? It was so big it made Brooks Island look like a pebble, and if you stood on the Marina's western shore in 1894 you could see the vast salt marsh stretch toward San Pablo Strait. As Standard Oil and the Santa Fe Railroad began to reclaim land, Richmond was born. The face of its shoreline changed as it grew. In the early 1940's the shoreline was again transformed as Henry Kaiser built four shipyards, leveling Easter Hill and Point Potrero in the process. Here 747 Liberty, Victory and other ships were launched that were vital for the support of the allied armies in World War II. Richmond has transformed a hundred ways in the past 100 years, and it's still changing. Discover more of its secret past and promising future at the Home Front Festival. Maybe you'll be inspired to make change happen too.
FIESTA!
Vibrant colorful skirts swirled as the music played during fiesta time. Here since the early 1800's and throughout the days of the California Rancheros, Mexican families have made the Richmond area their home, sharing their beautiful culture. But during World War II, Mexican men enlisted and the women put away their fancy dancing costumes to join the home front work force. Many went to work at Filice & Perrelli, the Ford Plant, and Sante Fe. Some like Mrs. Florien Esperanza, signed on at American Radiator, which had converted to the manufacturing of magnesium bombs and hand grenades. Their labors and spirit ensured that Richmond would one day celebrate fiestas again; so come on down and dance to the music at the Home Front Festival.
CRUISING AND BLUES-ING
What was the best night of the week during World War II? Saturday night, of course, when nightclubs were swinging, theaters were packed, folks dressed their best and the music of mariachis or foxtrots poured into the streets. As bluesman Jimmy McCracklin sang: "Now Richmond, California is a great little town…" Teens growing up after the war kept up the tradition. Saturday night was for polishing up the ride and cruising peacefully up and down Macdonald Avenue, capped by a stop at Gordon's or Doggie Diner. Richmond still knows how to have a good time. At the Home Front Festival, we'll have great bands, good food, family fun and more, so come on down and enjoy the spirit of a great little town.
Historical Posters
Home Front Historical Posters designed by Spokewise.
WORKPLACE MAGIC
Henry J. Kaiser was a businessman who rose to prominence for his company's role in the construction of the iconic hydroelectric dams in the modern West-Hoover, Bonneville and Grand Coulee. In World War II, his reputation grew as a "modern wizard of production" who revolutionized shipbuilding for the Allied cause. After the War, Kiaser's global enterprises expanded to include automobiles, steel, cement, aluminum, engineering and mining, to name a few. Today, Henry Kaiser is remembered for his socially responsible approach to business - better wages and pensions, equal opportunity in the workforce, a collegial approach to negotiating with labor unions, grand experiments in workplace childcare, and for the health care program that bears his name - Kiaser Permanente. Keep the magic of opportunity in Richmond and celebrate its historic roots at the Home Front Festival By the Bay!
HEALTH CARE INNOVATION
Sidney R. Garfield, MD, entered the medical profession during the Great Depression when traditional fee for service care was woefully inadequate and there was a cry of new thinking in health care delivery. In the late 1930's and early '40s, Garfield creatively combined nominal prepayment insurance, physician group practice, and funding for clinical research and modern facilities into a design that became a high quality, affordable health care program for the employees of the Kaiser West Coast shipyards on the home front of World War II. Founded with industrialist, Henry J. Kaiser, the medical care program became what is now known as Kaiser Permanente. Today it provides health care for 8.7 million members from Washington DC, to Honolulu, Hawaii. And it all started right here in Richmond. Come celebrate the innovative spirit of our community at the Home Front Festival By the Bay!
WHO IS RICHMOND?
Before World War II, Richmond was the Native American tribe from the Southwest which lived near the Atchison-Topeka and the Santa Fe rail line. It was African American families who farmed the blocks of open land the city once held. It was Japanese American flower growers, and it was Italian merchants who pressed their own wine on weekends. During the war, Richmond became a town of immigrants - from El Paso and Arkansas, Louisiana and Eastern Europe - each bringing a new shade of personality to the booming town. Today Richmond is people from Laos and Cambodia, Guatemala and Mexico and every continent. That's what makes this place to celebrate; so let's get together and discover Richmond at the Home Front Festival.
A CITY FOR ALL
How big was Richmond in 1941? Just 23,000 people. By 1943, more than 100,000 had found their way to this quiet little city - 90,000 of them to build war vessels at the Kaiser Shipyards. Lucille Ziesenhenne worked at the California State Employment Office where hundreds would line up each morning. "It all happened so fast, we didn't have enough restaurants, housing, hospitals or schools, but a lot of good came of it. Kaiser hired women, African Americans and for the first time ever, people with physical disabilities, bringing about anti-discrimination laws." Come and discover how all those newcomers made the city the wonderful patchwork of color and culture that it is today at the Home Front Festival.
LOYALTY
They came to America from Asia…to fish, to farm, to mine and to pour sweat and blood into building the West. They were pioneers, and many settled in San Francisco. Yet, they were treated unequally and targeted with laws that countered the truths of the Constitution. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 cut off Chinese immigration. When WWII broke out, Executive Order 9066 forced 110,000 Japanese Americans into internment camps, destroying their communities. During this time, 2,000 Filipino American volunteers served in the US Army’s First Filipino Infantry Regiment. In the San Francisco Bay Area, 2,000 Chinese Americans went to work at the Kaiser Shipyards. By war’s end, a more just society was beginning to emerge. The repeal of anti-Asian immigration restrictions together with the passage of the War Brides Act of 1945 brought new hope for Asian Americans. Come learn about the loyalty of the Asian Americans and their role in the Home Front at the Home Front Festival.
CIVIL RIGHTS AND THE CALIFORNIA DREAM
People came by the thousands in search of the California Dream. Many, like Eddie Eaton who was born in Texas, had come from the segregated southern states. Learning to live together was difficult. Governor Earl Warren decided the schools weren't going to be segregated and told those who complained, "You can just travel right back to where you came from." "People said, 'we have a struggle and we're going to stand together,'" Eaton said. "They would go to each other and communicate with each other on the jobs. It seemed like a dream that things were happening here that wouldn't exist in other places." Come learn more about Richmond's dreams at the Home Front Festival.
SANTA FE INDIAN VILLAGE
An 1880 verbal treaty between Laguna Pueblo Indians in New Mexico allowed the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroads passage through their territory in exchange for railroad jobs. Every year they met to reaffirm their agreement; "watering the flower." Soon and entire Indian Village was created at the train yards in Richmond. Their homes were a cluster of converted boxcars where their families joined them along with neighboring Acoma Pueblo Indians. They maintained their rituals including "deer dinners," tribal meetings and "butterfly dances." During WWII, the men joined the military ranks and their women took over their railroad jobs, from signal tower operators and freight handlers to track sweepers. Their loyalty to the railroad changed Richmond forever. Come celebrate our diversity at the Richmond Home Front Festival.
WILD ROSES
Where in Richmond do roses bloom, twining wild through fields of glass? They're growing in old greenhouses of Richmond, remnants of a Japanese American flower-growing industry that thrived before World War II. Although Italians and Germans were also labeled "enemy aliens" after Pearl Harbor and forced to leave Richmond, the Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps. Despite these injustices, many eagerly returned to pick up the broken glass of their greenhouses and fill them with flowers again. Seizu Oishi and his family were among those who returned to Richmond. Some (like Seizu's son, Tom) even enlisted in the army to serve our country. They make up part of the beautiful bouquet of people and culture that Richmond is today. Come learn more and celebrate Richmond's history at the Home Front Festival.
VANISHING ISLAND
Where's Potrero Island? It was so big it made Brooks Island look like a pebble, and if you stood on the Marina's western shore in 1894 you could see the vast salt marsh stretch toward San Pablo Strait. As Standard Oil and the Santa Fe Railroad began to reclaim land, Richmond was born. The face of its shoreline changed as it grew. In the early 1940's the shoreline was again transformed as Henry Kaiser built four shipyards, leveling Easter Hill and Point Potrero in the process. Here 747 Liberty, Victory and other ships were launched that were vital for the support of the allied armies in World War II. Richmond has transformed a hundred ways in the past 100 years, and it's still changing. Discover more of its secret past and promising future at the Home Front Festival. Maybe you'll be inspired to make change happen too.
FIESTA!
Vibrant colorful skirts swirled as the music played during fiesta time. Here since the early 1800's and throughout the days of the California Rancheros, Mexican families have made the Richmond area their home, sharing their beautiful culture. But during World War II, Mexican men enlisted and the women put away their fancy dancing costumes to join the home front work force. Many went to work at Filice & Perrelli, the Ford Plant, and Sante Fe. Some like Mrs. Florien Esperanza, signed on at American Radiator, which had converted to the manufacturing of magnesium bombs and hand grenades. Their labors and spirit ensured that Richmond would one day celebrate fiestas again; so come on down and dance to the music at the Home Front Festival.
CRUISING AND BLUES-ING
What was the best night of the week during World War II? Saturday night, of course, when nightclubs were swinging, theaters were packed, folks dressed their best and the music of mariachis or foxtrots poured into the streets. As bluesman Jimmy McCracklin sang: "Now Richmond, California is a great little town…" Teens growing up after the war kept up the tradition. Saturday night was for polishing up the ride and cruising peacefully up and down Macdonald Avenue, capped by a stop at Gordon's or Doggie Diner. Richmond still knows how to have a good time. At the Home Front Festival, we'll have great bands, good food, family fun and more, so come on down and enjoy the spirit of a great little town.
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Presented by the City of Richmond, Richmond Chamber of Commerce and the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park