1943.03.25 "Housecleaning" by Gerald W. 'Jerry' Costello

1943.03.25 “Housecleaning”
by Gerald W. 'Jerry' Costello (1897-1971)
11 x 15 in., ink on board
Coppola Collection 

During his junior year at Central High School in Scranton, Jerry completed the C. N. Landon School's mail-order Correspondence Course of Cartooning and Illustrating. His first cartoon was published in the Scranton Daily News in 1913. He was hired at the Philadelphia Press in 1916 and briefly attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In 1918, at the age of 21, he returned to Scranton to work in the art department of the Scranton Republican.

Following brief stops at the Binghamton Press (1919), the Buffalo Courier and Enquirer (1920), and the Newark Star-Eagle (1921), he became the editorial cartoonist for the Albany Evening News (later called the Knickerbocker News), where he remained from 1922 until his retirement in 1962. 

In early 1943, there was a major surge in public awareness and official coverage of women’s contributions in every sector. WAVES and WACs were widely publicized. Life magazine ran major stories on WAVES training in March 1943, and WAC membership had surged to over 150,000 by June. And in May 1943, the iconic Rosie the Riveter image graced Norman Rockwell’s Saturday Evening Post cover (May 29) and was widely featured in newspapers, posters, magazines, and newsreels, portraying women entering factories in record numbers.