Victoria O'Hearn talks about her experiences as nurse in France during World War One. She recalls being asked to translate evacuation notices sent to French citizens just prior to the bombing of their village, being stationed in a Paris hospital and having to chastise Marshall Petain for not closing a hospital door, being lost in the dark during a blackout while trying to help a little French girl shop for a gift, and treating an Italian laborer who trusted her with his life savings to send back to his wife. O'Hearns says that the morale and fighting spirit of French civilians in war time was amazing and that she herself found her work rewarding even in the face of long hours and difficult conditions. Ends abruptly.
Data Provider:
Michigan State University. Libraries
Collection:
Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
Dorothy M. Harrison describes the efforts of the Louisville Unit of the Women's Overseas Service League to preserve the histories of its members and then talks about the life of Constance Sheltman White who served in the U.S. Army Medical Department as an occupational therapist during World War One. Harrison reads from an article in Louisville Magazine about White entering the the family printing business, her education, her service in France and her work with the Near East Foundation teaching children. Harrison also reads from a letter White wrote to the Louisville Unit about her service in the war and in Turkey and in Greece and Iraq with her husband for the Near East Foundation.
Date Issued:
1983-01-01T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:
Michigan State University. Libraries
Collection:
Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
Transcript of interview of Frances Huckins. In this transcript, she describes her early life, but most of the transcript is about her life during WWI in New York at Camp Mills as a hostess. She details her daily life at the camp. Of particular interest are her recollections of her experience with the 1918 flu epidemic and watching the men practice bayonet drills. She also details her travels around the world, including her six month job as a hostess at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii after World War I. After Hawaii, Mrs. Huckins returned to the U.S. and was hired at a tuberculosis hospital in Oteen, North Carolina. The interview concludes with her explaining her affiliation with the Women Overseas Service League.
Date Issued:
1980-01-01T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:
Michigan State University. Libraries
Collection:
Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
In an oral history interview, 93 year-old Lena Hitchcock talks about her pioneering service as an occupational therapist in the U.S. Army during World War I. She says that she was one of the first of her profession to join the Army and was in the first group of women sent to France to establish physical therapy practices in American hospitals. Hitchcock recalls being shipped to France aboard a troop transport which was part of a twenty-nine ship British convoy and being assigned to a New York nursing unit which was part of the Army Medical Corps. She says that she was always too busy to keep a diary of her experiences in Europe and that beginning each day at 6:00am she was faced with treating a constant flow of casualties coming in from front line aid stations. Hitchcock also describes the science behind physical therapy, gives a history of the profession and explains why she chose it as a career. The interview is conducted during the 62nd Annual WOSL Convention. Hitchcock is interviewed by Jane Ingersoll Piatt and Geneva K. Wiskemann from the WOSL Lansing Unit.
Date Issued:
1982-07-14T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:
Michigan State University. Libraries
Collection:
Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
Edna Scott talks about her service with the American Red Cross in France in 1918 and 1919. Scott says that she joined the Red Cross in 1918 as a nurse's aide, but soon became a canteen worker and also spent time visiting the injured and sick in hospital. Scott says she has been a member of the Red Cross for over sixty years and helped found the WOSL unit in Kansas City in 1921. She talks about her uniform, puts on her service cap for the interviewers and says that she would do it all over again if she had the chance. Scott is interviewed by Evelyn McHiggins with Jane Piatt and Geneva K. Wiskemann.
Date Issued:
1982-07-14T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:
Michigan State University. Libraries
Collection:
Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
Hazel M. Hamilton, formerly a sergeant in the Women's Army Corps, talks about her service in World War Two. Hamilton explains why she enlisted in July 1942 and talks about going through confidential secretary training and working and housing conditions at her duty stations in Des Moines, Iowa, Daytona, Florida, Los Alamos, New Mexico, Fort Sam Houston and Fort Hood, Texas, Fort Hamilton, New York, and in Scotland, England and Paris, France. After being discharged, Hamilton says that she took advantage of the G.I. Bill and attended secretarial school for eight months in Pasadena, California. Hamilton also reminisces about her childhood and events she remembers from World War One. Hamilton is interviewed by Thelma Norris and Genevieve Cadmus.
Date Issued:
1983-05-28T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:
Michigan State University. Libraries
Collection:
Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
Helen B. Schwarz says that she was motivated by patriotism to join the U.S. Army Nurse Corps an discusses her service during World War I in this oral history interview. Schwarz says that she was first sent to Fort Gordon in Georgia for training and later shipped to France to work in a hospital that was called "Base 114". Schwarz recalls her pay, her nursing duties, living in tents and barracks, her uniform, working twelve hour shifts and going AWOL with another girl to visit Paris. Schwarz says that obeying curfew was her biggest challenge in the military and that she enjoyed "every minute of her time in the Army. Schwarz is interviewed by Betty Thompson.
Date Issued:
1983-05-19T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:
Michigan State University. Libraries
Collection:
Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
Group of men, one blowing trumpet (or noise maker) and another an accordion, celebrate the end of World War I in Detroit, Michigan.
Notes:
Collection located at the Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan. To schedule an appointment to view the original image, order high resolution copies, or seek permission to use an image, contact the Walter P. Reuther Library AudioVisual Department at reutherreference@wayne.edu., Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University, and This metadata was created by Wayne State University Library system based on original description by the Walter P. Reuther Library
Date Issued:
1918-11-11T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:
Wayne State University. Libraries and Walter P. Reuther Library