World War II and the Fountain Pen

"From war rationing to active combat duty, fountain pens from the World War II era embody layers of history. Read the story in this first of a four-part series."

- By Richard Binder

World War Il touched almost every aspect of life. On the home front, rubber and gasoline rationing changed travel habits, creating a boom in railroad ridership. There were quotas on fuel oil. Meat, butter, coffee, and sugar were rationed. Victory VV Gardens sprang up to supply more fresh vegetables. Clothing and shoe sales were limited.

The need for writing instruments did not diminish. Instead, it burgeoned as families at home flooded the postal system with letters and packages for servicemen and women scattered around the world.

The War Production Board designated rubber, steel, aluminum, brass, petroleum, and other raw materials as critical war resources and strictly rationed them, with most of the supply going to the manufacture and shipping of war matériel and the operation of the Allied war machine.

The net effect on the manufacturers of writing instruments, especially fountain pens, was a mandated decrease in production as thousands of factories were converted to war production. In November 1942, the WPB limited the production of fountain pens to 46 percent of 1941 output.

Companies that excelled in war production received the Army-Navy “E” Award for Excellence in Production. The G. S. Parker Pen Company received the “E” Award on October 29, 1943, for the production of bomb and shell fuzes, and the W. A. Sheaffer Pen Company received it on May 13, 1944, for the production of bomb and shell fuzes, microphone and headphone plugs, and automatic radio tuners for aircraft. The Parker “51” shown above, engraved to commemorate the awards ceremony, was given to a Parker employee.