Tank Training at Fort Knox in 1942

In June 1942, Office of War Information photographer Alfred T. Palmer (1906–1993) visited Fort Knox, Kentucky, to photograph the 1st Armored Division making ready for battle. It was the first armored division of the U.S. Army to see battle in World War II.

 

 

 

Alfred T. Palmer was born in San Jose, California, United States in 1906. In 1912, his family moved to Long Beach, California, United States. In 1916, he visited Yosemite National Park, where his mother Harriet worked, for the first time; during this trip, he took a number of photographs and met photographer Ansel Adams. In the 1930s, he became the official photographer aboard ships belonging to shipping companies Dollar Line, Matson, and Moore-McCormack Line. In 1938, he traveled across the United States and took a great number of photographs documenting the every-day life of Americans.

In 1940, after the European War had begun but America had not yet entered the war, Palmer was made the head of the photography department of the National Defense Advisory Commission of the newly established Office of Emergency Management. In this role, he took photographs depicting Americans hard at work, building the “Arsenal of Democracy”. After the US entry into the war in 1941, he joined the newly formed Office of War Information in a similar role, aiming the build American morale through his style of photographic artistry. After the war, he became a photographer for National Geographic and produced motion pictures for the Maritime Commission, US State Department, various governments in Asia, various humanitarian organizations, and various private companies.

– WW2DB

 

 

Via: Library of Congress