(MILITARY WORLD WAR TWO) Dorie Miller Pearl Harbor Naval He

Sale 2663 - Lot 312

Price Realized: $ 594

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900

(MILITARY--WORLD WAR TWO.) Dorie Miller, Pearl Harbor Naval Hero. Color print on paper, 9 x 7 inches, tipped to a slightly larger piece of black card as issued; moderate wear, dampstaining noticeable on verso. No place: LWE, circa 1942

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In the segregated navy of the 1940s, Black recruits were almost entirely restricted to service as mess attendants. When Pearl Harbor was attacked on 7 December 1941, one of the messmen on the USS West Virginia was Doris "Dorie" Miller. While the ship was under fire from the surprise attack, Miller carried a wounded officer from the deck, and then without any training took a position behind one of the ship's anti-aircraft guns. As he described it later, "It wasn't hard. I just pulled the trigger and she worked fine. I had watched the others with these guns. I guess I fired her for about fifteen minutes. I think I got one of those Jap planes. They were diving pretty close to us."

Once his identity became known, Miller received a Distinguished Service Cross, but after lobbying by the nation's Black press, he was awarded the yet more prestigious Navy Cross in May 1942. He died in the line of duty in November 1943.

The best-known portrait of Miller is here printed in color, with a short inset biography recounting his exploits. The printer's catalog number "510" appears in the lower left. We find only one other example of this print, which had overprinting for a South Carolina funeral home and a thermometer attached for use as an advertising piece, at a Swann sale, 31 March 2016, lot 379. That piece has since been donated to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum.