I understand that the British government promoted the notion carrots could help mitigate blackout blindness, which turned out to be a myth -- carrots can improve your night vision if you are Vitamin A deficient, but not otherwise. But why did the government promote this view? Was it to fool German pilots (and conceal their newly developed radar)? Or to persuade the British people to eat the massive quantities of carrots that would otherwise rot?
Dear Abha Jain,
Thank you for posting your request on History Hub!
The American government also encouraged eating carrots to improve night vision, as you can see by the image we’ve included below of the poster "Night sight Can Mean Life or Death - Eat Carrots and Leafy Green or Yellow Vegetables... Rich in Vitamin "A", Essential for Night Sight", which is part of the series World War II Posters, 1942–1945 in the Records of the Office of Government Reports (Record Group 44). This series includes 10 additional references to carrots that might be of interest to you. These records have been digitized and may be viewed online using the National Archives Catalog links provided.
We also searched the Catalog and located the series Correspondence Relating to Purchase Programs, 1940–1943 in the Records of the Surplus Marketing Administration (Record Group 125) that contains some information related to carrots that might be of interest to you. These records have not been digitized. Please contact the National Archives at Kansas City via email at kansascity.archives@nara.gov for access to these records.
The series Radio Scripts and Related Correspondence, January 1, 1942–August 31, 1943 in the Records of the Office of War Information (OWI) (Record Group 208) includes information about nutrition used in government campaigns, and the series Special Reports, 1942–1944 in Record Group 44 includes the file #10 Nutrition Campaign, which may contain some details about carrots as well. These records have not been digitized. Please contact the National Archives at College Park - Textual Reference (RR2R) at archives2reference@nara.gov for assistance with these and similar records.
You may also wish to explore the numerous additional records related to carrots in the 1940s that we located. Some of these records have been digitized and may be viewed online using the Catalog. For access to any non-digitized records, please contact the National Archives (NARA) reference unit listed in each Catalog description.
You may experience a delay in receiving an initial acknowledgment as well as a substantive response to your reference request. We apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your understanding and patience.
In addition, we searched the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s website and located multiple resources related to carrots and night vision that may be useful for your research. We also located an article in the Smithsonian Magazine that might be of interest to you: A WWII Propaganda Campaign Popularized the Myth That Carrots Help You See in the Dark.
Finally, for more information about the British carrot campaign of World War II, please contact the National Archives (United Kingdom).
We hope this is helpful. Best of luck with your research!
