When the United States entered WWII after Pearl Harbor, most of the country’s celebrities came out to put their full force behind the war effort. Babe Ruth, the nation’s most famous sports star was no different. The Babe approached his patriotic duty with a typically Ruthian response, tirelessly visiting munitions factories, Red Cross stations, appearing in War Bond drives and managing in charity games.

     This quaint photograph shows the Babe on one of his unsung patriotic appearances during the war. The 3 ½ x 5 inch sepia tone photo shows Ruth in his 1934 World Tour jacket surrounded by women volunteers and boxes of relief supplies. That he wore his 1934 Tour of Japan jacket may have been a little Ruth humor at work - when the Babe heard about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor he took it as a personal insult and destroyed most of the souvenirs and gifts he received when he visited in 1934. Now, here he was doing war work wearing the jacket from that Japanese tour. Ruth added his unmistakable signature to the bottom portion of the photo in black fountain pen. The photo has been professionally matted and framed to 14 1/2” x 15 1/2”. The photo comes with an LOA from PSA/DNA (AD07107) for the signature.

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