USS SUMNER - War Diary, 6/1-30/45, NARA ID 77464207.
DID YOU RETARD YOUR CLOCKS?
Not a typo, not un-PC, but Navy’s usage of “retard”
Daylight Savings Time has been discussed, used, amended and abandoned starting around WWI. Of course we have related records including Congressional debates, political cartoons, and the surprising (to us) use of the term “retarded” by the US Navy in re: time changes!
Circular No. 50-24: Daylight Saving Time, 9/8/1924. NARA ID 6882506.
WWI Poster: Saving Daylight! NARA ID 512689.
Opposition to Daylight Savings, Clifford Berryman cartoon, 5/25/1922, NARA ID 6011733.
Marcus M. Marks, Chair of the Nat'l. Daylight Saving Movement, signals to set hands of the great clock in the Metropolitan Tower, NYC, 3/31/1918.
Untitled cartoon by Clifford Berryman, 5/25/1922, NARA ID 6011373
Imperial Germany became the first country to institute Daylight Saving Time on April 6, 1916, when the Federal Council (Bundesrat) ordered an additional hour of daylight be added from May through September. The U.S. embassy in Berlin reported this initiative. Read more in diplomatic records archivist David Langbart's Text Message post Daylight Saving Time Begins, 1916. See also his 3-part series on the origins and early implementation of Daylight Savings Time:
DST – The Early Experiences I: Germany
DST – The Early Experiences II: France
DST – The Early Experiences III: Great Britain
Don't use the time change as an excuse for slacking off at work!
WWII poster, NARA ID 515611.