Original U.S. WWII USAAF Aircraft Nose Art Photograph Collection with Pinup Girl Artwork - 20 Photos Total
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Original Items: One-of-a-Kind Group. This is an outstanding collection of 20 original WWII photographs featuring the colorful and often suggestive nose art applied to American military aircraft. The artwork includes classic pinup girls, humorous characters, and memorable aircraft names, all representative of the unofficial artistic culture that developed among American aircrews during the war.
Most of the photographs appear to show B-24 Liberator and B-29 Superfortress bombers, although some may depict smaller bombers or fighter aircraft. The images include close views of individual nose art designs as well as wider photographs showing more of the aircraft. One larger photograph was taken from a considerable distance, while the remaining images are smaller and vary significantly in size and shape.
Aircraft names visible within the collection include Bar Flies, Peace on Earth, Tail Wind, Devil’s Darlin’, Southern Belle, Tokyo Rose, Million Dollar Baby, Million Dollar Baby II, 9th Seabees, Shanghai Lil Rides Again, The One You Love, In the Mood, Forbidden Fruit, Miss Hap, Mission to Albuquerque II, Dragon Lady, and Good Deal. Not every photograph displays a visible aircraft name.
The photographs remain in excellent overall condition. Several retain pieces or remnants of tape, suggesting that the collection was once mounted in a wartime photograph album or scrapbook.
Nose art consisted of decorative names, figures, and designs painted on the forward fuselage of military aircraft. Although aircraft markings originally served practical identification purposes, nose art developed into a means for aircrews to personalize otherwise standardized military machines. The designs frequently reflected popular culture, humor, hometown memories, romantic interests, and the pinup artwork widely seen in wartime magazines and calendars.
For many crews, nose art also became a symbol of group identity and morale. The aircraft was often treated as another member of the crew, and its name and artwork could become closely associated with the men who flew and maintained it. Because the designs were generally unofficial and the artists frequently went unrecorded, wartime nose art is now widely regarded as a distinctive form of military folk art.
A particularly strong collection of original WWII aviation photographs, containing numerous identifiable aircraft names and an excellent assortment of period pinup, humorous, and suggestive nose art. The tape remnants and assortment of photographic formats give the group the appearance of a collection assembled by a wartime serviceman.
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