Brown in the Great War

Heeding President Faunce’s directive to “live the simple life this spring, a life of spartan simplicity, from from display, extravagance, economizing in every direction and using our resources as directly as possible in the service of the nation,”[2. BUA. BAM, 17:10. May 1917, pg250] the students of the Women’s College began by giving up the greater part of their beloved Ivy Day exercises. They contributed the money saved to the Red Cross and spent the day making bandages and knitting socks.

Students from the Women’s College rolling bandages in Sayles gym. 1917. BUA, SB-1E-1, College Scrapbooks, vol. 15.

Using Sayles Gym and a room in Miller Hall, with materials donated by undergraduates, the students knitted countless mufflers, sleeveless sweaters, and wristers for the Navy League. Responding to an appeal from the Red Cross, the women knit 32 sweaters during two weeks in October alone. They made fracture pillows, compresses, and oakam pads. The smell of the oakam, as they picked it, drove some of them from the room.[3. BUA. BAM, 18:1. June, 1917. p15] Throughout the Fall and Winter, every Tuesday and Friday afternoon were set aside for Red Cross sewing. The room in which the women worked, the social room of the Gymnasium, did not meet Red Cross requirements, so they were prohibited from doing surgical dressings work. Without a sewing machine, the they were confined to hand sewing.[4. BUA. Sepiad 18:2. February, 1918. p18]

In the summer of 1918, Biology Professor H. E. Walters, wrote to Brown’s servicemen and reported that half the Women’s College were participating in Red Cross work and informed them that “there is a fine generation of grandmothers growing up right now here at home that all will know HOW TO KNIT when they eventually come to sit in the chimney corner and tell stories of these great days to your grandchildren.”[5. BUA. MS-IUF-W1. H.E. Walters Papers. Review Hints #6. July 14, 1918]

Women from the Class of 1914 at a 1917 reunion. Pembroke College archives. Images of Brown.

Many students joined first aid and home nursing classes. The University attempted to establish a nursing program, but the plans fell through, twice.[6. Annual Report of the President to the Corporation of Brown University. Providence, RI., 1919. pg43] Seniors registered for a class in Wireless Telegraphy; others planted vegetable gardens, and hundreds took lessons on canning fruits and vegetables at the Biological laboratory. Students also raised funds to support alumni embarking on war work. Mabel S. Le Valley (1901) was supported with funds when she went to do canteen work in France under the Red Cross. “Some of the men asked me to play the phonograph (only the Americans are allowed to touch it.) About twenty gathered around the counter, and we played the phonograph and sang. “Madelon”, “La Tamise” & “La Reve Passe are the three favorites.”[7. BUA. Sepiad 19:1. December, 1918. pp36-45] Funds were also given in support of Miss Helen M. Hastings (1913) who sailed for France with a unit of the Homeopathic Hospital of Boston. “We left America with cheering crowds on all sides of us, in one of the very large transports. [ ]…The hands on the boat struck up “Hail, hail, the gang’s all here” as we began to move slowly out of the harbor. Once in France, Hastings reported that she visited “a hospital crowded with our boys, wounded in the June drive. They’re the gayest crowd in the world, except when they’re unhappy. We saw the dressings done, where they simply clenched their fists to keep from screaming…the wounds are terrible things.”[8. BUA. Sepiad 19:2. February, 1919. p51]

Le Valley and Hastings, along with the other alumni, students, and faculty from the Women’s College who served the nation are absent from the 1919 directory of Brown men who served in the Great War. Also missing from the publication are the names of the University’s support staff that volunteered or were drafted into service. We know that Miss Sarah Ide Shepard resigned her position as Order Clerk for the University Library to enter war service, only because she was later rehired for the position of Serial Clerk.[9. Annual Report of the President to the Corporation of Brown University. Providence, RI., 1919. p56] In the preface of the publication, the absence of Brown’s civilian service is acknowledged with regret and it is stated that records of the civilians associated with the University that served in the war had been collected by the War Works Committee and would be included when “a full statement of the national service of her sons” was produced. Nearly a hundred years later this full statement has yet to be published, but the topic presents itself as an enticing area for further research.

After the war was over, President Faunce summed up the contributions of Brown’s female students by stating that “In some respects the women’s Colleges of our country suffered more from the psychological reactions of the war than the men’s colleges. The intense emotions aroused by the conflict found among the men appropriate vent in heroic action. [ ]…but for most of the students in our women’s colleges there were only the quiet and safe tasks of the Red Cross work at home, or the mild ingenuities of food conservation. Bayonet drill for the men, and knitting for women is not a program that involves visible equity of duties.”[10. Ibid. pp26-27]

In this audio interview, Lilian Dorothy Beals (1918) and Rose Presel (1918) discuss the particularities of attending the Women’s College during World War I, including picking oakum and knitting scarves and helmets during class for the Red Cross; Beals also tells the story of her fiancé who was killed in the war. Sarah Mazick Saklad (1928) shares her memories of World War I, including learning to knit, Providence’s Armistice Day celebration, and the influenza epidemic in this audio interview.