The White House VICTORY GARDEN
JONATHAN PLISKA
within a year of u.s. entry into world war ii, the federal government rolled out a host of austerity measures designed to economize everyday life in favor of military necessity.1 Nearly everything of value fell under this purview. Need a new tire for the family car? Best be prepared to wait a month or more and fill out a mountain of paperwork, as rubber was in short supply and desperately needed to keep thousands of jeeps and supply trucks rolling overseas.2 Metal conservation became ubiquitous, so much so that dog food stopped being sold in tin cans and anyone wishing to purchase a new tube of toothpaste, then made of metal, had to turn in an empty one.3 Every little bit counted, and Fido’s former food container or your old tube of Colgate could be repurposed as part of a new battleship or bomber. Even children were expected to contribute whenever possible. Stories abound of Golden Age comic book collections sacrificed in scrap paper collection drives, with the recycled material used to store soldiers’ meal rations, ammunition, and even blood plasma.4 By the end of 1942, a large number of other types of goods were also similarly restricted, including leather, gasoline, electrical components, silk, nylon, and medicines.5 And then, of course, there was also food rationing.6 As the old saying goes, “An army marches on its stomach,” and Uncle Sam soon took measures to ensure that his troops remained well fed throughout the remainder of the war.
Civilian food rationing began on May 4, 1942, setting a limit on the amount of sugar each person was allowed to purchase per year. This restriction remained in effect until June 1947, nearly two years after the war ended, making sugar the first food item added to the list and the last to be removed.7 In the interim, five other major types of food came and went: coffee, meats, cheese, fats, and processed foods. The latter proved a category unto itself, covering all foods that were canned, frozen, or otherwise prepackaged and included more than three hundred individual entries.8 In its excellent series of articles entitled The American Home Front and World War II, the National Park Service explains that “food was mostly rationed on the point system, since supply and demand shifted often, as foods came in and out of season. . . . Products with high demand and low availability needed more points than more readily-available goods.”9 This system revolved around government-issued ration books, each of which contained an assortment of different stamps or coupons bearing a specific point value.
To pay for a rationed food, shoppers had to produce the correct number of “ration points” in addition to the monetary cost of the item.10 While generally effective, consumers found the program confusing at best and maddening at worst, so much so that rationed goods and counterfeit coupons began circulating on the black market.11 On the whole, however, most Americans took these restrictions in stride and understood that their sacrifices meant that a G.I. in Europe or a sailor in the Pacific had a full belly and—ideally—a taste of home. Doing less with more, or going without entirely, became a patriotic duty and point of national pride.12
Although the government enforced ceiling prices on wartime sales to prevent price gouging, scarcity was persistent, and there was no guarantee that any food, whether rationed or not, could be found on grocery store shelves at any given time. Most notably, fresh produce was never subject to rationing, but that did not mean that apples, carrots, parsley, and the like were always readily available.13 The produce supply was of concern from the very start, as on December 19, 1941, a mere twelve days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States
previous spread and above Ration coupons, like those pictured here, were required to purchase more than three hundred food items in the United States during World War II. Although fresh produce was not rationed, Americans were encouraged to support the war effort by growing their own vegetables in “Victory Gardens.” It was young Diana Hopkins (page 40) who planted a Victory Garden at the White House. Those who planted gardens could proudly wear a patch (page 41) to symbolize their efforts.
A poster published during World War I in 1918 by the National War Garden Commission encouraged Americans to support the war effort by gardening. The illustration was made by James Montgomery Flagg, who also created iconic images of Uncle Sam.
Department of Agriculture convened an emergency meeting to “discuss and formulate a broad coordinated program for enlisting interest in and guiding a national campaign to encourage home and community gardens as a defense measure.”14
This objective coalesced under the Victory Garden movement, a sweeping, multidisciplinary initiative designed to encourage mass plantings of vegetable, fruit, and herb gardens on private and public lands throughout the nation.15 Combined with the aforementioned restrictions on consumer goods and the food-rationing system, Victory Gardens soon became a part of daily life on the American home
front, and thereby played a pivotal role in ensuring eventual triumph during World War II.
The Victory Garden concept was not new, however, having originated as the War Gardening crusade in 1917, when the United States entered World War I. This period saw a previous generation of American civilians charitably grow produce in their backyards and public squares with the express purpose of sending it across the Atlantic to help feed the war-torn peoples of Europe.16 Twentyfive years later, the idea of promoting civilian gardens returned, with one fundamental difference: this time the vast majority of the food grown in World War II Victory Gardens would not be sent overseas.17 Instead, it stayed home, thereby allowing professional farms to concentrate on keeping the U.S. military fully supplied while the Victory Gardens fed civilians, who either ate what they grew or sent it to local markets. Moreover, these supplemental harvests helped to lower the overall price of produce, thus saving money that could be spent elsewhere in furtherance of the war effort. Victory Gardens also became an important means of boosting morale by fostering civic pride, community engagement, and patriotic spirit through the shared experience of hard work.18
The government set the lofty goal of seeing 5,760,000 Victory Gardens established before the close of 1942.19 Even so, there was a great deal of trepidation over entrusting such a monumental task to novice gardeners. Good intentions alone would not make green thumbs, and there was no true substitute for practical experience. An educational blitz, however, went a long way toward making up the difference. The Department of Agriculture took the lead by printing and distributing planning guides in mass quantities. Emblazoned with the now iconic “V for Victory” logo, these pamphlets provided basic information on how and when to plant different types of crops, as well as instructions regarding harvesting, canning, and preserving one’s own food.20
According to Stephanie Hinnershitz, a historian specializing in the history of the home front at the National WWII Museum, “These guides introduced Americans to the broad reach of the Victory Garden campaign,” but this was only the beginning. Such an ambitious undertaking also required “landscapers who could design gardens, truck drivers to transport the products to markets, and home economics teachers who could teach first-time
farmers how to safely store the fruits of their labors.” Furthermore, “federal employees including artists and advertising specialists also found work in designing and publicizing the propaganda used to spark inspiration to grab trowels and take to the soil.” Nutritionists, chemists, and other scientists lent their expertise, as did the members of farm extension services and professors from the nation’s leading land-grant colleges and universities. Victory Gardens quickly became much more “than a movement of individual families pouring their patriotic fervor into plowing, planting, and picking,” even if that is how they are most commonly remembered today. Instead, writes Hinnershitz, they grew into “a carefully orchestrated and complex campaign developed by the federal government, coordinated by private industry, and executed by Americans looking to feed their families within the bounds of wartime rationing.”21
As early as the mid1930s, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt had been trying to convince her husband to allow for the planting of a kitchen garden on the White House Grounds. Back then, her goal had been to provide a subsistence model for the millions of hungry Americans struggling to feed themselves during the Great Depression. FDR, while clearly sympathetic to their plight, apparently disagreed with the proposed location and reportedly “told soil scientists to declare [the] White House ground too sorry even to raise an umbrella.”22 Not the type of person to take a simple no for an answer, Mrs. Roosevelt instead chose to bide her time and next broached the idea again during the spring of 1942.
yard is full of rocks or something. The people own this place, and don’t want it busted up just so she can plant beans,” or so the story goes.23
According to the second version of events, the president and first lady were jointly mulling over the idea of installing a “vegetable for victory” garden on the White House lawn but would decline “to do it if it will encourage other city dwellers to waste seed and fertilizer. . . . The White House Garden would be expertly managed, and use would be made of all the vegetables raised, but there is a question whether city dwellers generally would understand the difference between the President’s garden and their own infertile backyards.” 24 At the time, this was a legitimate concern, as no one really knew whether the Victory Garden campaign would catch on. Pragmatically speaking, a highly visible reminder of a failed governmental policy located just beyond the White House windows would be bad political optics. Better to wait and see how things turned out before making that type of commitment.
The latter scenario seems much more likely than the former, but regardless of the rationale behind the decision, the proposed garden once again found itself on the back burner. Mrs. Roosevelt convened a small press conference and declared that, for the time being at least, the lawn “would grow nothing but grass.”25 The matter remained far from settled, however.
left Victory Garden Guide, a thirty-two page pamphlet released in 1943, was one of many publications issued by the U.S. government to instruct Americans on how to create successful Victory Gardens.
opposite A collection of colorfully illustrated patriotic messages issued by the U.S. government during World War II to encourage Americans to “Dig for Victory” and grow their own vegetables.
Newspaper reports offer two different accounts of what happened next. The first holds that the president once again balked at the garden’s proposed location and also once again trotted out the soil scientists to shoot down his wife’s idea. His instructions went something like this: “Tell her the
Not surprisingly, Eleanor Roosevelt eventually got her way. On March 22, 1943, she proudly declared that, come summertime, there would finally be a Victory Garden on the White House Grounds. She also announced that 10-year-old Diana Hopkins, the daughter of longtime presidential adviser and former Secretary of Commerce Harry Hopkins, would be in charge of the plot. “It will be a small thing,” the first lady said. “Children
can grow things they are apt to want to grow in a very small space.”26
Diana, along with her father, had been living at the White House for nearly three years. Her mother had died in 1937, and for much of this time Harry Hopkins was chronically ill. Consequently, Diana was a sweet but lonely child, especially since there were seldom other children to play with. However, Mrs. Roosevelt was always particularly kind to her. The first lady may have sensed a kindred spirit, someone who reflected her own self at that age.27
Groundbreaking for the new garden took place in early April and, for what it’s worth, there was no mention of rocks coming up with the turf. The newspapers did, however, erroneously report that it occupied the former site of a White House flower bed, leading to the long-held misunderstanding that Diana grew her vegetables within the footprint of what is today the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden.28 In reality, the Victory Garden was located just outside this ornamental space, on the near southeast grounds and a stone’s throw away from Harry Hopkins’s office in the East Wing.29
Laid out in a rectangle and measuring a mere 20 square feet, the parcel was indeed small, just as Mrs. Roosevelt had advertised, but held enough room for Diana to plant radishes, carrots, beets, lima and string beans, tomatoes, and cabbage.30 She was proud of the garden and took her responsibility seriously. On most days “farmer Hopkins,” as the press took to calling her, could be found outside, diligently tending to her duties. She quickly learned that weeds grew everywhere, even in the president’s backyard, and it was her job to keep them in check.31 Thankfully, she was up to the challenge, and “expressed confidence” that her Victory Garden would “add substantially to the White House larder if the present good weather holds.”32
The historical weather data for Washington, D.C., shows nothing particularly out of the ordinary, so there is no reason to believe that Diana brought in anything less than a bumper crop during the fall harvest.33 But no record of the event seems to have survived. Even the newspapers are uncharacteristically quiet, with virtually no mention of the Victory Garden whatsoever after an Associated Press team turned out to document Diana’s progress in mid-May.
This event produced a series of photographs that soon thereafter appeared in newspapers across the country. All of these images are similar, showing
Diana, clad in a pair of overalls, running a garden hoe through one of her rows of seedling vegetables while her father and stepmother (Hopkins had remarried in 1942) look on approvingly.34 The accompanying text is brief and light on details, beyond the observation that Diana “was too busy hoeing to pay attention to visitors” or smile for the photographers.35 Raw newsreel footage of the day also exists, but likewise adds little to the narrative, except to definitively show that the White House Victory Garden was indeed located beyond the boundaries of the present-day Jacqueline Kennedy Garden.36
Diana, along with the rest of her family, moved out of the White House in November 1943, by which time, presumably, the harvest was over. 37
Regardless, the Victory Garden did not return the following spring, with its former location once again given over to grass. No reason was ever given for this decision, but the girl’s absence essentially quashed any realistic chance of it coming back for a second season. All told, the White House Victory Garden lasted, at most, eight months, a mere blink of the eye compared to the long and illustrious history of the larger presidential landscape.38
above and opposite Diana Hopkins joins First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt at the White House Easter Egg Roll, 1939 (above). During World War II, the two shared an interest in creating a Victory Garden. On May 10, 1943, Diana (opposite, right) donned overalls and picked up a hoe to tend her seedlings on the White House Grounds. Diana, like millions of Americans, from children (opposite, top left) to Vice President Henry Wallace (opposite, below left) was inspired to grow vegetables to contribute to the war effort on the homefront.
Diana Hopkins eventually followed in her father’s footsteps and chose a career in federal public service, becoming a longtime national security expert for the U.S. government. As the “recipient of many commendations for her national security work,” she “was a multi-linguist who worked for more than three decades on some of the most sensitive national security issues around the globe,” says her obituary.39 Despite these accolades, she nevertheless remained best known to the public as the girl who planted a vegetable garden for Mrs. Roosevelt during World War II. More than seventy years later, her story became the basis for the aptly named children’s book, Diana’s White House Garden. Published in 2016 and intended for young readers between the ages of five and eight, the book provides a playful yet educational depiction of her real-life exploits.40
For her part, Diana Hopkins remained immensely proud of her brief tenure as White House farmer, and she had every reason to do so. By the end of World War II, Americans had planted more than 20 million Victory Gardens throughout
the United States.41 These plots varied tremendously from place to place: large parcels of country farmland, modest suburban backyards, and small window boxes and container gardens atop urban rooftops all contributed to the production of between 8 and 10 million tons of food, or about 40 percent of all the produce consumed on the home front.42 Lacking an official mascot, Diana became something akin to the movement’s unofficial face, encouraging every patriotic citizen to follow her example and grow what they could.
In the years following the end of World War II, the term “Victory Garden” understandably fell out of fashion. Even so, the underlying premise behind this ideology persists to the present day—namely, that it is possible to grow at least a portion of one’s own food supply, no matter how meager the environment. Community gardens, so popular across America today, owe their existence in no small part to the Victory Garden movement.
Diana Hopkins (later Halsted) passed away on August 26, 2020, at the age of 87.43 Fittingly, her obituary describes her as a lifelong avid gardener,
As she approaches the area set aside for the White House Victory Garden, Diana Hopkins is joined by her father, Harry Hopkins, and her stepmother, Louise Macy Hopkins who wears her volunteer nurse’s uniform. This still from the surviving newsreel footage shows the exact location of the garden, just outside the boundaries of the presentday Jacqueline Kennedy Garden.
and Elisa Carbone, the author of the children’s book based on her White House Victory Garden, notes how she continued to grow her own produce until the end of her life. Tomatoes and string beans remained some of her favorites, just as they had been during World War II.44
notes
1. “Sacrificing for the Common Good: Rationing in WWII,” National Park Service website, www.nps.gov.
2. Lee B. Kennett, For the Duration . . . : The United States Goes to War, Pearl Harbor–1942 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1985), 134–36.
3. Ibid., 129–30.
4. “Recycling & Repurposing in WWII,” Wartime Wisdom (blog), www.wartimewisdom.com.
5. Kennett, For the Duration, 124–27; David Herold, “A Difficult Time for the United States: U.S. Rationing of Goods During WWII,” March 9, 2018, War History Online website, www. warhistoryonline.com.
and Repurposing in WWII,” Wartime Wisdom (blog), Duration for warhistoryonline.com.
6. “Rationing,” National WWII Museum website, www. nationalww2museum.org.
American and II
7. Megan E. Springate, “Food Rationing on the World War II Home Front,” The American Home Front and World War II, National Park Service series, www.nps.gov.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
25. “No Capitol Garden,” Battle Creek (Mich.) Enquirer, May 1, 1942, 9; “Victory Gardens and Shared Sacrifice,” Forward with Roosevelt (blog), posted August 18, 2011, Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum website, www.fdr.blogs. archives.gov.
Wants to Start Victory Garden,” Washington Times-Herald, April 7, 1942, 2.
25. “No Capitol Garden,” Battle Creek (Mich.) Enquirer, May 1, 1942, 9; “Victory Gardens and Shared Sacrifice,” Forward with Roosevelt (blog), posted August 18, 2011, Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum website, www.fdr.blogs. archives.gov.
26. Quoted in “White House to Have Own Victory Garden,” Scranton (Pa.) Tribune, March 23, 1943, 5.
27. William Seale, The President’s House: A History, 2nd ed. (Washington, D.C.: White House Historical Association, 2008), 2:239.
26. Quoted in “White House to Have Own Victory Garden,” Scranton (Pa.) Tribune, March 23, 1943, 5.
27. William Seale, The President’s House: A History, 2nd ed. (Washington, D.C.: White House Historical Association, 2008), 2:239.
28. “President Gives Up Coffee, Drinks Milk Even for Breakfast,” Columbia Missourian, March 23, 1943, 4; Lee Carson, “To Merry Clinks of Glasses Capital Looks to Its Gardens,” Memphis (Tenn.) Commercial Appeal, April 13, 1943, 11.
29. “Presidential Agent,” Time, January 22, 1945.
28. “President Gives Up Coffee, Drinks Milk Even for Breakfast,” Columbia Missourian, March 23, 1943, 4; Lee Carson, “To Merry Clinks of Glasses Capital Looks to Its Gardens,” Memphis (Tenn.) Commercial Appeal, April 13, 1943, 11.
29. “Presidential Agent,” Time, January 22, 1945.
30. “Diana Hopkins Has Garden,” Edwardsville (Ill.) Intelligencer, May 11, 1943, 4; “Diana Hopkins Plants White House Garden,” Allentown (Pa.) Morning Call, May 11, 1943, 10; “Diana Hopkins Growing Beets,” Los Angeles Times, May 11, 1943, 2.
31. “Weeds Grow in White House Garden Too,” Taylor (Tex.) Daily Press, May 11, 1943, 4.
30. “Diana Hopkins Has Garden,” Edwardsville (Ill.) Intelligencer, May 11, 1943, 4; “Diana Hopkins Plants White House Garden,” Allentown (Pa.) Morning Call, May 11, 1943, 10; “Diana Hopkins Growing Beets,” Los Angeles Times, May 11, 1943, 2.
32. “Diana Hopkins Also Finds Weeds Grow Fast,” Passaic (N.J.) Herald-News, May 11, 1943, 20.
31. “Weeds Grow in White House Garden Too,” Taylor (Tex.) Daily Press, May 11, 1943, 4.
33. The National Centers for Environmental Information of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration provides historical weather data by request, at www.ncei.noaa.gov.
32. “Diana Hopkins Also Finds Weeds Grow Fast,” Passaic (N.J.) Herald-News, May 11, 1943, 20.
33. The National Centers for Environmental Information of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration provides historical weather data by request, at www.ncei.noaa.gov.
34. “Victory Garden at White House,” Washington Times-Herald, May 11, 1943. 14; “White House Farm,” Los Angeles Times, May 11, 1943, 2; “White House Victory Garden,” Norfolk VirginianPilot, May 12, 1943, 10.
10. Kennett, For the Duration, 137–38.
11. Megan E. Springate, “Home Front Illicit Trade and Black Markets in World War II,” American Home Front and World War II
12. “Sacrificing for the Common Good.”
Kennett, Duration 11. in War II 12.
13. Springate, “Food Rationing on the World War II Home Front.”
14. “National Defense Gardening Conference, Washington, D.C., December 19–20, 1941, Department of Agriculture Auditorium,” U.S. Department of Agriculture report, Washington, D.C., n.d., 1. A copy of this unpublished report, including typescript copies of the presentations delivered at the conference, is available online through the USDA’s National Agricultural Library website, www. nal.usda.gov.
“Food on World Front.” “National Defense Gardening Conference, Washington, D.C., 19–20, of Department Agriculture n.d., the is the Agricultural www.nal.usda.gov.
15. “Victory Gardens and Farms,” U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Library website.
16. Ibid.; Charles Lathrop Pack, Victory Gardens Feed the Hungry (Washington, D.C.: National War Garden Commission, 1919), 1–5; “Victory Gardens in World War I,” National World War I Museum and Memorial website, www.theworldwar.org.
17. M. L. Wilson, “M-Day for Gardening,” and Claude R. Wickard, “Vegetables, Vitality, and Victory,” typescripts of both presentations in “National Defense Gardening Conference” report.
18. Megan E. Springate, “Victory Gardens on the World War II Home Front,” American Home Front and World War II.
19. “National Defense Gardening Conference” report, 1.
20. Springate, “Victory Gardens on the World War II Home Front”; “Victory Gardens and Farms.”
21. Stephanie Hinnershitz, “Victory Gardens: Food for the Fight,” November 26, 2024, National WWII Museum website.
22. Frank I. Weller, “Inside the White House: A Peep at the Inner Circle,” Oakland (Calif.) Tribune, August 28, 1942, 2.
23. Ibid.
U.S. the Garden Commission, 1–5; “Victory Gardens in World War I,” National World War I L. Gardening,” and Defense on the World American Home Front and World War II Conference” 1. Springate, “Victory Gardens on the World War II Home Front”; and 21. Food National 22. I. “Inside , August 28, 1942, 2. for White Science 6, Roosevelt September 12, 2012, www.cityfarmer.info. See also Virginia Pasley, “Mrs. Roosevelt
24. “‘Vegetables for Victory’ Garden for White House?,” Christian Science Monitor, April 6, 1942, quoted in Michael Levenston, “1943: President Roosevelt Tried to Shut the Door on a White House ‘Victory Garden,’” City Farmer News, www.cityfarmer.info. See also Virginia Pasley, “Mrs. Roosevelt Wants to Start Victory Garden,” Washington Times-Herald, April 7, 1942, 2.
35. “Diana and Her White House Victory Garden,” Passaic (N.J.) Herald-News, May 11, 1943, 20.
34. “Victory Garden at White House,” Washington Times-Herald, May 11, 1943. 14; “White House Farm,” Los Angeles Times, May 11, 1943, 2; “White House Victory Garden,” Norfolk VirginianPilot, May 12, 1943, 10.
35. “Diana and Her White House Victory Garden,” Passaic (N.J.) Herald-News, May 11, 1943, 20.
36. Diana Hopkins’ Victory Garden: Outtakes, silent 35 mm film footage, filmed May 10, 1943, Fox Movietone News Story 49-200, digitized version available online at University of South Carolina, Fox Movietone News Collection, Moving Image Research Collections, www.digital.tcl.sc.edu.
37. Edith K. Gaylord, “Hopkinses to Be Hard for Santa to Find,” Winston-Salem (N.C.) Sentinel, December 24, 1943, 17.
36. Diana Hopkins’ Victory Garden: Outtakes, silent 35 mm film footage, filmed May 10, 1943, Fox Movietone News Story 49-200, digitized version available online at University of South Carolina, Fox Movietone News Collection, Moving Image Research Collections, www.digital.tcl.sc.edu.
37. Edith K. Gaylord, “Hopkinses to Be Hard for Santa to Find,” Winston-Salem (N.C.) Sentinel, December 24, 1943, 17.
38. Dating back to 1790, the White House Grounds constitute the oldest continually maintained historic landscape in the United States.
39. “Diana Halsted Obituary,” Washington Post, June 18, 2021.
38. Dating back to 1790, the White House Grounds constitute the oldest continually maintained historic landscape in the United States.
39. “Diana Halsted Obituary,” Washington Post, June 18, 2021.
40. Elisa Carbone and Jen Hill, Diana’s White House Garden (New York: Viking Books for Young Readers, 2016).
41. Hinnershitz, “Victory Gardens: Food for the Fight.”
40. Elisa Carbone and Jen Hill, Diana’s White House Garden (New York: Viking Books for Young Readers, 2016).
42. Springate, “Victory Gardens on the World War II Home Front.”
41. Hinnershitz, “Victory Gardens: Food for the Fight.”
43. “Diana Halsted Obituary.”
42. Springate, “Victory Gardens on the World War II Home Front.”
43. “Diana Halsted Obituary.”
44. Carbone and Hill, authors’ note, Diana’s White House Garden, n.p.
44. Carbone and Hill, authors’ note, Diana’s White House Garden, n.p.
