Kilroy at the Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum

John Bruce of Draper, Utah, enjoys visiting our little town and making stops at the Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum. He owns an inventive woodworking business and has created several nutcrackers for our local museum; even the ones so tiny sitting on the end of a matchstick and of course the funny “Running Nose” Nutcracker Nose piece. (Images 2 and 3). Draper and Arlene Wagner, the clever and witty owner of the museum, had discussed the production of several nutcrackers for her large display of over 7000. One of his inventions is the petite Kilroy nutcracker, peeping out at visitors through a glass display. (Image 1)

Then again, who exactly is Kilroy?  The inventor was James Kilroy of Halifax, Massachusetts (1902-1962), a rivet inspector working at the Fore River shipyard in Quincy during the war. Members of the US Forces, in particular the older generation of service staff, more than likely will be familiar with the term and his name. Throughout WW 2 the shipyard needed to escalate on production to turn out as many ships as they could for the war force. One of Kilroy’s duties was to inspect all the rivets that were holding the ship together. As he made his inspections, often crawling into tight areas, even down into tanks, he left his check mark but also began to note ”Kilroy was here” in larger letters as he added the outline of the little man peering over the railing.

Generally, all inspections done would have been concealed when the ship was painted before heading out the sea. However, due to the urgency of the war progress, the vessels left the coast with “Kilroy was here “marked in various whereabouts of the ships. At that time service staff started noticing these drawings but they had no idea of their nature.

“Kilroy was here” soon became a widespread message to mark at various spaces. It did not take too long, and Kilroy’s catchphrase had been noted throughout the South Pacific and Europe. During the solemn and wretched time of war, the soldiers found some joy to discover how many places the little Kilroy man would appear. Wagner’s husband George, who was a soldier in the early phases of World War II, even had spotted Kilroy’s drawings in the South Pacific himself. After the war, the scribbles became so well known that they were discovered written in places such as the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., and at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Even today, it is still written in numerous locations throughout the world.

Sources: https://worldhistoricalarchive.com, https://www.atlasobscura.com