Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Minnesota is swept up in the war effort along with the rest of the country. Between 1941 and 1945, more than a quarter of a million men and women are inducted into the military through the Fort Snelling Reception Center. Shortages of male workers force Twin Cities businesses to hire women — some mothers, many recent high-school graduates — as lifeguards, streetcar conductors and telegraph operators.

Minnesota Goes to War: The Home Front During World War II, Dave Kenney, Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2005.
Photos courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society and the Library of Congress.