Arizona State Capitol Museum Pt 1

Our friends Debbie and Dale needed to travel to Phoenix and asked if we wanted to join them for the drive.  The plan was to stop and visit the State Capitol Museum and then pick up some things they needed.  So, it was off to Phoenix early in the morning for the first stop at the Museum.

Arizona built a state capitol building and upgraded it a number of times and finally outgrew the space available.  There are a few offices left there but for the most part it is a museum with Arizona's history as a Territory and later a US State.

It is a nice museum spread out over 4 floors and I was interested in the posters from each of our armed forces during WWII.  I had seen many of them but there were a few new ones to me.  Since I haven't written for a while, I thought I'd start off with showing these posters.  They came from a more patriotic time in the US history.  There was more to the visit and I will write about it on a subsequent post.  Hope you enjoy the posters.

Who me??

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the graffiti.

Engraving of Kilroy on the WWII Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Kilroy was here is an American meme that became popular during World War II; it is typically seen in graffiti. Its origins are debated, but the phrase and the distinctive accompanying doodle – bald-headed man (sometimes depicted as having a few hairs) with a prominent nose peeking over a wall with the fingers of each hand clutching the wall – became associated with GIs in the 1940s.

"Kilroy" was the American equivalent of the Australian Foo was here, which originated during World War I and later became popular amongst schoolchildren.

"Mr Chad" or just "Chad", was the version that became popular in the United Kingdom. The character of Chad may have derived from a British cartoonist in 1938, possibly pre-dating "Kilroy was here".

Etymologist Dave Wilton says, "Some time during the war, Chad and Kilroy met, and in the spirit of Allied unity merged, with the British drawing appearing over the American phrase."^[1] Other names for the character include Smoe, Clem, Flywheel, Private Snoops, Overby, The Jeep (as both characters had sizable noses), and Sapo.

Author Charles Panati says that in the United States "the mischievous face and the phrase became a national joke... The outrageousness of the graffiti was not so much what it said, but where it turned up."^[2] The major Kilroy graffiti fad ended in the 1950s, but today people all over the world still scribble the character and "Kilroy was here" in schools, trains, and other public areas.

It is believed that James J. Kilroy was the origin of the expression, as he used the phrase when checking ships at the Fore River Shipyard in Massachusetts during WWII.

 The museum is free and takes about an hour to visit and see the exhibits.  If you are in Phoenix and have the time, it would be worthwhile to visit.  There is parking right across the street from the Old Capitol building.