The centerpiece of the museum's Home Front U.S.A. exhibit is the recreation of a typical Main Street scene as it would have appeared in most any small town during World War II. A Marine home on leave gets a shoe sign outside a barber shop, the window of the local drugstore next to him proudly displaying photographs of the town's young men and women serving in the armed forces. Down the street, a pawn shop beckons shoppers in an era in which rationing was the norm.

Period signs advertising everything from cigars to soft drinks adorn the exterior wall of a country store and gas station. Inside, museum volunteers who grew up during the war years describe the point system and use of ration stamps that governed the purchase of food and other products during World War II.  More than half of U.S. drivers during the war were issued "A" stickers for their cars, limiting them to four gallons of gas per week from pumps like that displayed in the exhibit.

Part of the replica of a typical American household during World War II is the kitchen, complete with period appliances. Housewives across America canned vegetables grown in victory gardens and cooked creative meals given the fact that such staples as meat, butter and sugar were strictly rationed. Note the gray helmet hanging on one of the doors in the kitchen, which is one worn by an air raid warden as part of the civil defense mission during the war.

One of the ways in which Americans on the home front contributed directly to those fighting overseas was in the saving of bacon grease. Grease went into the manufacturing of glycerin, which was a key element in the making of munitions. Families would collect grease over time and then deliver it to a government collection office, where they would be issued an extra meat ration. Few understood how bacon grease from the kitchen table could in any way make a bullet, but collect it they did.  The lack of availability of products during the war prompted the introduction of new items in American kitchens, among them margarine to replace butter.

Image in the collection of the Franklin D.Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum.