Janet Greig Post
Janet Greig Post.
Janet Greig Post, one of Knox College's most honored alumni, was a member of the Great Lakes Auxiliary of the Navy relief Society in Great Lakes, Illinois. She was also a lifetime member of the American National Red Cross due to her generosity during the war years. As such, she completed several Red Cross-affiliated courses, includung Elementary Hygiene and Home Care of the Sick and the Preparation of Red Cross Surgical Dressings. The April, 1918 issue of The Knox Alumnus describes Post's laudable war record thusly: "Janet Greig Post has just returned from a trip to Canada, made at the suggestion of the Instructions Committee of the Chicago Red Cross Chapter. Mrs. Post has completed a course in training in Invalid Occupations - occupations that may be used in connection with the re-education of disabled soldiers. The trip to Canada was for the purpose of making observation and study along these lines in the Canadian Military Hospitals where the re-education of the disabled soldiers has been carried on for the past two years - not alone in the hospitals themselves as a bedside occupation, but in the vocational and functional re-education which follows. Mrs. Post... is giving practically all her time to some form of war activity."
Post supported many war-related causes financially, the Salvation Army, Grove House for Convalescents, and the Fatherless Children of France committee. She also worked with the Women's Overseas Section of the National War Work Council, an affiliate branch of the Y.M.C.A.
The following letters, often by anonymous writers, are located in Janet Greig Post's manuscript collection in Seymour Library's Special Collections and Archives. These workers, although their names may be lost to history, provide a wonderfully colorful picture of what service with the Women's Overseas Section of the National War Work Council was like. Confronting hard work, sexism in the workplace, and the tragedy of war, women workers had a multiplicity of difficult tasks throughout World War I.
(Click on an image for a larger view.)Letter from Marie Shufflebotham to Mrs. Wood
"Boys Glad to See American Girl"
Anonymous letter about the quality of WWI nurses
Excerpt from "Substantial Pensions for American Women of the A.R.C. and Y.M.C.A."
Letter from a corporal to an anonymous canteen worker
"Information Concerning Women's Canteen Service"
Letter to "Ann" from an anonymous sender
Letter from Marion B.C. Watts
Letter from "L.L." to "My dear Miss W--"
Letter from B. Laurie to an anonymous recipient
Anonymous letter
"Information Concerning Women's Canteen Service"