—October 1919 War Activities Bulletin1
Though the women attending the Fredericksburg State Normal School could not fight “over there,” they actively participated in the homefront war effort, eagerly keeping up with current events. The students and faculty made generous contributions to the Students’ Friendship War Fund, and in November 1918 almost every student and faculty member donated to Relief Work in Armenia and the Near East. Many students at FSNS bought Liberty Bonds, Victory Bonds, and War Savings Stamps. They eagerly contributed to the United War Fund, washing windows, polishing shoes, putting away coal, husking corn on neighboring farms, collecting donations at tolls, and doing any other work they could find. Through their hard work and dedication, the students and faculty at SNS easily exceeded their $1,000 fundraising goal for the United War Fund.2 The school’s first post-war catalogue asserted that the students at FSNS “proved themselves one hundred percent patriotic Americans” in all of their efforts.3
Money was also raised to donate to the Virginia War Relief Association for the Fatherless Children of France. Aside from just fundraising money, a couple clubs and faculty members at FSNS actually “adopted” war orphans from France and Belgium! These “adoptions” were not permanent and seem more like what we know today as foster care—the students and faculty members typically cared for an orphan for one year. In 1917 Miss Olive Hinman, head of the Fine and Industrial Arts Department, “adopted” Alexandre Lassere, and in 1918 Maurice Gillman. Both children were French war orphans. The Woodrow Wilson and the Russell Literary Societies each donated money in 1917 to “adopt” a war orphan and did so again in 1918. In 1919 the Dramatic Club “adopted” Jeanne Maingault, and the Glee Club “adopted” a French war orphan. In total, FSNS “adopted” and took care of 5 war orphans during the war.4
Knitting for the Soldiers
Several other clubs at FSNS particularly dedicated themselves to contributing to the war effort in various ways. The YWCA students spent much of their time during the winter of 1915-1916 making garments for children in Belgium.5 They also participated in the school’s United War Drive, which in total raised over $2,000.6 During the war years, membership in the YWCA consisted of around 75% of the total student body, but after the war, it skyrocketed to almost 100% by 1921.7
Both the Russell and Wilson Literary Societies worked with the local Red Cross chapter to knit and sew for soldiers and war victims in Europe, with “needles and scissors flying in this patriotic work.”8 They also organized programs related to war work and conditions.9 The Russell Literary Society even planned a course of study related to war issues! Some of the topics this course included were the Red Cross Movement, Patriotic Songs of the Warring Nations, and the Mobilization of the US Army and Navy.10
The women of the Rifle Club dedicated themselves to becoming “efficient riflewomen” during the war.11 The Secretary of War was distributing rifles no longer in use by the armed forces (although apparently the school never received the rifles), and the women at FSNS felt it was their duty to be ready.12 The Rifle Club page in the 1917 yearbook included a particularly prescient quote from the women that highlights their devotion to preparedness: “Who can say but in a few weeks there may go forth the cry, ‘Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle?’”13 As it so happened, the faculty sponsor of the Rifle Club, Gunyon M. Harrison, ended up training riflemen during the war and serving in Europe as a captain in the Army.14
Aside from the clubs involved in the war effort, the FSNS women also dedicated much of their extracurricular time to creating and maintaining war gardens, in which they grew their own food to help contribute to the conservation of other food supplies. The war gardens at FSNS were part of the Junior Nature Study course and smaller units within the United States School Garden Army. As part of the US School Garden Army, students were split into companies and received an insignia, service flag, and record book. Prizes for garden products included items like War Savings Stamps. When students were not working in their gardens, they went out into the local community and helped farmers take care of their crops. Every Saturday groups of FSNS students visited local farms to shuck corn and help around the farm, displaying what the school termed “a beautiful spirit of co-operation between school and community.”15
A Few of the War Posters: Students’ Work
Among all these activities, the students also found time to organize and put on parades in support of the war, donated their own money and asked for additional money from their parents to support fundraising, and they created propaganda posters to support the war and food conservation.16 And let’s not forget that these wonderful women were also in school, taking classes and doing homework! According to a War Activities bulletin, the women at FSNS gained a much greater sense of thrift and responsibility from all of their efforts.17 However, as you can imagine, they were quite exhausted by the end of the war, and they collectively voiced their relief in the 1919 yearbook: “Everybody—Oh I’m so glad the war is over.”18
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Notes
1. Bulletin of the State Normal School, Fredericksburg, VA: War Activities, October 1919, 11, Special Collections and University Archives, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington, http://archive.org/details/bulletinofstaten53univ (accessed March 19, 2014).
2. Ibid., 8; Bulletin of the State Normal School, Fredericksburg, VA, October 1917, 3, Special Collections and University Archives, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington, http://archive.org/details/bulletinofstaten33univ (accessed March 19, 2014).
3. Bulletin of the State Normal School, Fredericksburg, VA: Eighth Annual Catalogue, June 1919, 31, Special Collections and University Archives, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington.
4. Bulletin of the State Normal School, Fredericksburg, VA: War Activities, October 1919, 7, Special Collections and University Archives, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington, http://archive.org/details/bulletinofstaten53univ (accessed March 19, 2014).
5. Ibid.
6. Bulletin of the State Normal School, Fredericksburg, VA: Eighth Annual Catalogue, June 1919, 36, Special Collections and University Archives, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington.
7. Bulletin of the State Normal School, Fredericksburg, VA: Seventh Annual Catalogue, June 1918, 35, Special Collections and University Archives, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington; Bulletin of the State Normal School for Women, Fredericksburg, VA: Tenth Annual Catalogue, June 1921, 35, Special Collections and University Archives, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington.
8. Bulletin of the State Normal School, Fredericksburg, VA, October 1917, 21, Special Collections and University Archives, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington, http://archive.org/details/bulletinofstaten33univ (accessed March 19, 2014).
9. Ibid., 20.
10. Ibid., 21.
11. Battlefield Yearbook, 1917, 67, Special Collections and University Archives, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington, http://archive.org/details/battlefield191700univ (accessed March 19, 2014).
12. Distributing rifles: Battlefield Yearbook, 1914, 65, Special Collections and University Archives, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington, http://archive.org/details/battlefield191400univ (accessed March 19, 2014); Rifles not received: Edward Alvey, Jr., History of Mary Washington College: 1908-1972 (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1974), 48.
13. Battlefield Yearbook, 1917, 67, Special Collections and University Archives, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington, http://archive.org/details/battlefield191700univ (accessed March 19, 2014).
14. Battlefield Yearbook, 1917, 67, Special Collections and University Archives, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington, http://archive.org/details/battlefield191700univ (accessed March 19, 2014); Bulletin of the State Normal School, Fredericksburg, VA: War Activities, October 1919, 4-5, Special Collections and University Archives, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington, http://archive.org/details/bulletinofstaten53univ (accessed March 19, 2014).
15. Bulletin of the State Normal School, Fredericksburg, VA, January 1919, 3-6, Special Collections and University Archives, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington, http://archive.org/details/bulletinofstaten44univ (accessed March 19, 2014); Quote: Ibid., 4.
16. Parades: Bulletin of the State Normal School, Fredericksburg, VA: Eighth Annual Catalogue, June 1919, 31, Special Collections and University Archives, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington; Donations: Bulletin of the State Normal School, Fredericksburg, VA, October 1917, 4, University of Mary Washington Special Collections, http://archive.org/details/bulletinofstaten33univ (accessed March 19, 2014); Propaganda posters: Viewbook, 1919, Special Collections and University Archives, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington.
17. Bulletin of the State Normal School, Fredericksburg, VA: War Activities, October 1919, 12, Special Collections and University Archives, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington, http://archive.org/details/bulletinofstaten53univ (accessed March 19, 2014).
18. Battlefield Yearbook (Class Book), 1919, 49, Special Collections and University Archives, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington, http://archive.org/details/battlefield191900univ (accessed March 19, 2014).
Student Life Image Citations
1. “Knitting for the Soldiers,” Viewbook, 1919, [34], Special Collections and University Archives, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington.
2. “A Few of the War Posters: Students’ Work,” Viewbook, 1919, [35], Special Collections and University Archives, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington.
Voices of the Great War Citation
1. St. George’s Church, St. George’s Church during the World War, ca. 1920, 2, Virginia War History Commission, Series VII: City Source Material, 1919–1927, Box 62, Folder 3, Accession 37219, State Records Collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond.
