It isn’t so much their relationship to men but a depiction of their personal sacrifice. They are invested in what they are doing because their loved ones are in the war. It is real to them. Now days you would also see daughters, neices, moms, and aunts names listed.

I know there are many things I actually do, instead of just thinking of them, because my son is a Marine. I know what it is like to have a loved one gone. It helps to feel connected to him even if it doesn’t directly affect him.

Interesting, I never thought to ask my Grandmother what she did during the war while my Grandfather was gone. I know after the war she became a nurse and supported the family while he retrained for another profession.

However, if you’ve ever seen a genuine Norman Rockwell close up, he actually did paint to an almost photographic level of detail. I grew up in the area where he lived. The local museum almost always had a few of his paintings on display and I remember reading articles of how the art world criticized his work for that photographic quality.

These color slides are mostly kodachrome sheet film (4X5, most likely). They’re of amazingly high level of detail, tonal range, contrast range. (In the full quality version, you can see that the topstiching of the kid in the tan’s shirt left pocket is coming loose. You can see the shadow the loose thread casts.) In a lot of ways, these are higher quality pictures that anything that’s shot today. You think they’re painted, because you’re used to looking at grainy color print film, and more recently, bad digital images.

In particular, the picture of the 3 boys looks like this method was probably used. The colors and shadows are a bit too good and a bit too Norman Rockwell for a photo.