The First Division Museum at Cantigny Park will continue its Date with History series at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 1, with “Chicago’s Arsenal of Democracy,” a presentation by historian Jerome M. O’Connor. He will discuss the mobilization of our region’s factories to support the U.S. military during World War II.
The public can attend the free lecture in person or online. If attending in person, at the Cantigny Park Visitors Center, registration is not required. Online viewers should register at FDMuseum.org to receive a Zoom link.
More than 1,400 Chicago companies converted almost overnight from peacetime to war production in the early-to-mid 1940s. It was the first major introduction of women into the labor force and ranks as the most successful mobilization of brains and muscles in American history. The presentation will feature rare images from the era, including the factories as they were and as they are now, plus the largest war factory ever built.
Jerome M. O’Connor, a U.S. Navy veteran, is the author of “The Hidden Places of World War II: The Extraordinary Sites Where History Was Made During the War That Saved Civilization,” published in 2019. He has been a professional journalist since his twenties while simultaneously building a firm specializing in international travel and study programs for professional associations. In 2001, O’Connor received the U.S Naval Institute’s “Author of the Year” award for revealing the near-intact existence of Nazi Germany’s five massive U-boat bunker bases along the French Atlantic coast.
O’Connor, a South Side (Englewood and Chatham) native, graduated from Mount Carmel High School and Loyola University. He is a longtime Elmhurst resident who spends his winters in Naples, Fla.
The First Division Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 am to 4 pm. Admission is free with paid parking of $5 per car. Visit FDMuseum.org for more details.
—First Division Museum at Cantigny Park