Mary Lamonica is a professor in the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at New Mexico State University. You may also know her under her publishing name, Mary M. Cronin.

How did you become involved with AJHA?

I heard about AJHA as a graduate student and attended my first professional convention in October 1990 in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. My Mass Media Ph.D. program at Michigan State University focused heavily on social science theory and research; I, however, wanted to be an historian. I worked with a professor in the Department of History and was encouraged to attend history conventions. AJHA provided the right mix of media and history. And, importantly, I met wonderful, welcoming people. After I (very nervously) presented my first professional conference paper, Maurine Beasley came up to me and was very encouraging. I am forever grateful to her for her motivational pep talk. And she invited me to join other historians for lunch at a point when I did not know any media history scholars. 

How does your prior work in print and radio journalism inform your research of journalism history?

I spent a decade as a news reporter, wire editor and as an assistant news editor prior to going for my Ph.D. My experiences with chasing down sources, attempting to be fair and balanced and verifying information made me wonder about press performance in past decades. I also became fascinated with the idea of the power of the press. Were newspapers (and magazines) as well as certain publishers as powerful in influencing and shaping public opinion as they were sometimes credited as being? Examining the press during the nineteenth- through the mid-twentieth centuries has allowed me to explore these issues and practices.

Much of your prior research examined the role of journalism during wartime, however your most recent book Home Front: Alfred T. Palmer’s World War II Photography explores war through the photographer’s lens. What new perspectives about war time journalism did you gain through focusing on photography, especially photography highlighting war efforts at home?

I’ve long recognized that visual media can be more powerful than written words. The public today may not remember as much about reporting during the Vietnam War years, for example, but they remember the so-called “Napalm Girl” image of the child running down the road terrified with other equally frightened children right behind her.

Visual imagery is a really understudied area in media history. Since photography’s inception, its practitioners, including photojournalists and commercial photographers—have produced some visually stunning work. Many have produced images that matter, capturing people, places and events to document them to make a difference.

While some combat photographers have been well researched, many commercial photographers, including those who did home front work for the Office of War Information and other government entities, have largely been ignored. They engaged in propaganda work and that term has such a pejorative connotation. Yet, their images were widely disseminated during the early 1940s and, I believe, had a strong impact on public opinion and public actions. Many of the photographs were visually stunning. Palmer, for example, was one of the first to use Kodachrome film and was a master of studio lighting. Two of his key contributions were shooting images of women and ethnic minorities. He represented them as dignified, patriotic and hardworking—a necessary approach to shift public opinion—at a time when the public wanted neither group in factories. But their contributions were necessary. We forget that although sixteen million men were in uniform during the war years, millions of civilians were needed to build the ships, tanks, planes and other war materials that were needed.

Like all historians, I love finding treasure troves of archival material that have not been mined. I was extremely fortunate that Alfred Palmer, as well as his wife and his daughter, Julia, recognized the war’s importance. They saved every letter he wrote, every order he received from military and civilian authorities, kept his diaries, and other records and images. In fact, his entire life’s work has been preserved and privately archived. By going through the documents, I learned of the struggles that Palmer faced to produce the images that were needed to motivate the public—the story behind the image creation, including the lack of money, the infighting in Washington, DC among propaganda executives, and Palmer’s desire toward the end of the war to serve as champion for an unheralded group of men: the Merchant Marine sailors who had the highest wartime casualty ratio as they attempted to get the needed wartime supplies to soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen.

You have frequently collaborated with other scholars including on Home Front which was written with Bruce Berman. What advice or lessons do you have for other scholars interested in collaborating on research?

First and foremost, rely on each other’s strengths. My co-author has worked for decades as a contract photographer for the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, Time, Newsweek and many more publications. He has photographed two wars, protests, births, deaths and every aspect of life for news media. And he’s undertaken years of commercial photography projects as well. His knowledge of visuals, including the history of photography, is superb. My strengths lay within the realm of researching and writing media history. We’ve worked on a few journal articles as well as the current book, and it has been a joyous collaboration to share ideas back and forth. I find that sharing knowledge strengthens both of us and improves our finished work.

Second, if you can, talk things out in person both before you start a project and during the project. If two or three scholars are not in the same community, set up an online meeting. Each scholar’s varying perspective helps guide the final project. Collaboration often leads to new ideas and new research questions.

What hobbies or activities do you enjoy outside of academia?

I like to travel in the US and abroad when I can. And despite all the reading that I must do for my research, I love to read many different genres of fiction and non-fiction. I also try to spend some quality time with my daughter.