DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Uniformed Women and the Great War:
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Description of Pictures: Uniformed Women and the Great War
April 6, 2017 – Indefinitely
Of the many ways World War I divided the past from the future, none was more significant than the reordered place of women in society. Tens of thousands of middle- and upper-class women donned military-style uniforms to serve at home and overseas in civilian relief organizations, as well as in the military. The selection of uniforms on display highlights the varied roles of uniformed women that allowed them to express their patriotism.
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SIAHUW_170404_15.JPG: Uniform in Uniform
Even before the United States entered World War I in 1917, tens of thousands of American women donned the uniforms of private social service and religious organizations. As volunteers they served in countless ways, from supporting civilian relief efforts in war-torn Europe to running social centers for servicemen, stateside and abroad.
Thousands more women put on military uniforms. Over 20,000 volunteered for the U.S. Army and Navy Nurse Corps. Nearly 13,000 joined the ranks of the Navy and Marines for the first time -- taking over office jobs that, per the popular saying, "freed a man to fight." And 450 trained as telephone operators in the Army Signal Corps.
At the time, women in the United States were fighting for the right to vote. For many of those who wore a uniform during the war -- whether civilian or military -- it was a visible sign of their service to the nation. It was also a statement that their service justified their claim to full citizenship.
SIAHUW_170404_19.JPG: Woman's Land Army of America "Farmerettes," around 1918
SIAHUW_170404_22.JPG: Helen Stewart Doane
U.S. Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation
Helen Stewart Doane served stateside as a volunteer with the U.S. Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation, a government-owned corporation charged with building and operating a merchant fleet in support of the war effort. She worked as part of the organization's large administrative and clerical staff.
SIAHUW_170404_25.JPG: Helen Cook
U.S. Army Signal Corps Female Telephone Operators Unit
Helen Cook served in France as Chief Operator with the U.S. Army Signal Corps Female Telephone Operators Unit. She and her fellow "Hello Girls" ran the switchboards for a telephone network that provided vital communications for the American Expeditionary Force in France. General John J. Pershing credited these women with doing "as much to help win the war as the men in khaki."
Take a Closer Look
Notice the star on Cook's World War I Victory Medal ribbon bar: she won a Silver Citation Star for gallantry in action. In spite of this, the army, unlike the navy, did not acknowledge women as veterans. The women lobbied for 60 years before an act of Congress in 1977 granted them veteran status and benefits.
SIAHUW_170404_28.JPG: Helen Cook
Helen Cook served in France as Chief Operator with the U.S. Army Signal Corps Female Telephone Operators Unit. She and her fellow "Hello Girls" ran the switchboards for a telephone network that provided vital communications for the American Expeditionary Force in France. General John J. Pershing credited these women with doing "as much to help win the war as the men in khaki."
SIAHUW_170404_38.JPG: Mabel C.S. D'Olier
American Friends Service Committee
Mabel Creth Sullivan D'Olier served in France as a volunteer with the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization formed in 1917. The group provided aid to displaced civilians in France, Belgium, Russia, Serbia, Austria, and Poland during and after the war. The French government awarded D'Olier the Red Cross medal for her service.
SIAHUW_170404_44.JPG: Lucy Kennedy Shaffer
American Fund for French Wounded
Lucy Kennedy Shaffer served in France as a volunteer with the American Fund for French Wounded. The fund, organized in 1915 by American women living in France, provided supplies to French military hospitals. Stateside volunteers raised funds and procured supplies to be sent abroad; volunteers in France, including a team of women drivers, distributed them to hospitals.
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