World War II Combat Artists

in Charlestown

Combat artists like Lt. Draper did not shy away from war action. They sketched as events unfolded and painted later.

Photo of painting by Joseph Rudenick, courtesy of the U.S. Navy Museum

Massachusetts native William F. Draper submitted five paintings from the Charlestown Navy Yard with his application to serve as a U. S. Navy combat artist. He became one of the first five artists selected shortly after the U.S. entered World War II. Draper served in the Pacific, “portraying history in the making,” he said.

Why did the U.S. Army, Marines, and Navy send more than 100 artists into battle? Traditionally, art depicting war had focused on prominent men, but World War II combat artists were instructed to show people back home how soldiers, sailors, and marines fought and lived. Unlike photographers, artists could capture battles that occurred in low-light settings. Other than confidential technical details, they were told to “Omit nothing. Express realistically and symbolically the essence and spirit of war.”

The art was shipped home, mass produced, and hung in towns across the country. Draper’s work was featured in four issues of the National Geographic and included in several exhibitions. By war’s end, combat artists had created more than 12,000 paintings and drawings.

Commissioned a lieutenant, William F. Draper (1912–2003) was assigned sea duties and stood watch on board, like all officers.

Photo ca. 1940.  Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

1944 oil on canvas painting by Lt. Draper of a marine, wounded in the assault on the beaches of Guam, being gently hoisted aboard.

Photo of painting by Joseph Rudenick, courtesy of the U.S. Navy Museum

Lt. Draper painted every-thing from Japanese attacks and pilots praying before battle, to sailors relaxing on board as on this 1943 oil on canvas painting.

Photo of painting by Joseph Rudenick, courtesy of the U.S. Navy Museum

After the war, William Draper had a successful career as a portrait artist. His painting of President John F. Kennedy hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

Sign Location

More …

Community activists. Colonial law. Political will. New state regulations. The combination created the 43-mile Boston Harborwalk–a public path, stretching from Logan Airport through seven neighborhoods to the Neponset River. In 1978, the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM) sought to improve public access to the waterfront. They succeeded by integrating early Colonial laws into new state regulations.

In the decades that followed, community activists, city and state government, and developers of shoreline projects have worked together to ensure the Harborwalk is always constructed along the waterfront. Some sites also provide public amenities–bathrooms, meeting places, kayak launches,
etc. The result is a fabulous path welcoming residents and visitors to our vibrant clean harbor.

Early Colonial laws established public right of access along tidelands to protect citizens’ rights to fish, hunt, and navigate at sea and along the shorefront. These laws go back even further: They stem from Roman law, which was incorporated into English law and brought over to Massachusetts by English
settlers. Then, in the 1640s, Massachusetts Bay Colony passed laws permitting private docks in the intertidal area (between low and high tide) as long as public access was retained. Almost all of Boston’s waterfront is filled land that was once the intertidal area. This, together with the centuries-old legal right of access, served as the underpinnings for the 1978 CZM regulations.

Resources

Acknowledgments

  • Warm thanks to NPS historian Steve Carlson for his help.
  • Our gratitude to the Perkins School for the Blind and David W. Cook for their partnership in creating the audio files.