Episode 34: Wax the Way to Victory
The vital contribution of bees and beekeepers during WWII
Welcome to this supplemental post for Episode 34 all about bees and beekeeping in wartime. Above is the image with the winning slogan I discuss in my episode. So patriotic! If you haven’t listened to the episode, check it out HERE!
I found a couple photographs about beekeeping in the National Archives and Library of Congress. Sadly, it was difficult finding many from wartime.
Click this link to see a Wartime poster encouraging people to protect the bees. (I can’t find the original poster image online, sadly.)
I couldn’t find any propaganda posters about bees or beekeeping, but I did find them used IN posters:
I think one is just fabulous!
I discovered this interesting photo in a Life magazine. It’s amusing the lengths people would go for patriotism!
As tin became scarce for selling honey in, beekeepers were encouraged to reuse pails and to switch over to glass jars when possible. Note the metal handle on the glass jar which was a particular trait of honey jars.
Below is an example of a metal honey container. I love the message on the back!
Saving wax was of utmost importance to make up for the lack of foreign beeswax imports during the war.
I found this receipt in one of the American Bee Journal issues. What a great little document!
I love this dramatic illustration encouraging housewives to use honey instead of sugar in their canning and food preserving.
To teach the public how to use honey in recipes with optimum success, cookbook authors, newspaper article columnists, and magazine editors surged to fill in the information gap. The American Honey Institute was especially helpful, which doesn’t come as a surprise.
Cookbook Feature:
Honey Recipes, for sweets, for energy, for conservation by the American Honey Institute, 1942.
Here is the failed recipe for cupcakes. Feel free to experiment. I highly recommend reducing the brown sugar and honey.
This one was much better, but perhaps needed 1/3 c. of honey instead. Plus some vanilla. It was very one-note without it.
Homefront Highlight:
James Beecken— 4-H Beekeeper
To read James’s full story, click here and scroll to the June 1942 issue, pgs. 256, 278!
RESOURCES
Websites/Articles:
Beekeeping and Its Impact on World War II
History of Beekeeping in the United States - USDA
Home Front Friday: Waxing the Way to Victory
BOOKS/MAGAZINES:
Honey Recipes: for sweets, for energy, for conservation. American Honey Institute, 1942.
Honey Flavor Harmonies by Ruth Hoover. Michigan State College Extension Division. Extension Bulletin 213. March 1942.
The American Woman’s Food Stretcher Cook Book. Edited by Ruth Berolzheimer, Director, Culinary Arts Institute, 1943, p. 45.
Old Favorite Honey Recipes. American Honey Institute, 1943.
Bees in America: How the Honey Bee Shaped a Nation. By Tammy Horn, 2005.
The Dependence of Agriculture on the Beekeeping Industry. Prepared by the Division of Bee Culture. Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine, Agricultural Research Administration, USDA. Via the Biodiversity Heritage Library, Dec 1942.
Life. 19 July 1943
Life. 14 Oct 1940
Life. 10 Jan 1944
American Bee Journal Archives via HathiTrust
“How Honeybees Help in the War Effort.” American Bee Journal, September 1942, p. 395.
American Bee Journal: September 1942, October 1942, November 1942, May 1945,
Cale, G. H. “Beeswax Needed in the War Effort.” American Bee Journal 82, no. 6 (1942): 247–48.
American Bee Journal, issues from 1941-1942 via HathiTrust and the University of Minnesota
American Bee Journal, issues from 1943-1944 via HathiTrust and the University of Minnesota
American Bee Journal, issues from 1945-1946 via HathiTrust and the University of Minnesota
IMAGES:
Honey Peddler reading the newspaper in market, San Antonio, Texas. Library of Congress, 1944.
Newberry County, South Carolina. Monthly meeting of the Beekeepers Association of Newberry County conducted by E. S. Prevost, Extension Bee Specialist, Clemson College, at the apiary of Mr. C. E. Hembree. Mr. Hembree is president of the Newberry County Beekeepers Association. National Archives, 1941.
Keep Things Buzzing. National Archives, 1942-1945.
Don’t let the absentee bugs get you. National Archives, 1942-1945.
Go Bees! The history of beekeeping in America has been woven into our cultural history since honeybees were first brought here. Support your local beekeepers by not using pesticides, including mosquito spraying, and buy local honey!
The Shell ad!! Oh my gosh, these may be some of my favorite images you've shared - besides soda fountain ones, I guess, haha! I can't wait to listen!