Ruth Matthews White Collection
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- Birthday party for Ruth White
- Ruth White cutting the cake at her birthday celebration with a group of navy personnel and three Red Cross co-workers in February 1946. All are stationed at the Naval Operating Base at Buckner Bay (Nakagusuku Bay) on Okinawa, Japan.
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- Checkers at Red Cross Club in Japan
- Military men and Red Cross workers, including Ruth White (right), play checkers at a club on Okinawa, Japan, circa 1946.
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- Opening of Red Cross Club in Japan
- Overhead photo of soldiers with coffee and cookies socializing on the opening night of the Red Cross Club at the Naval Operating Base at Buckner Bay (Nakagusuku Bay), Okanawa, Japan, on Christmas Eve 1945. Jean Heath is the Red Cross worker seen at center carrying empty coffee mugs.
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- Opening of Red Cross Club in Japan
- A crowd of sailors sit in chairs and on the floor for opening night of the Red Cross Club at the Naval Operating Base at Buckner Bay (Nakagusuku Bay), Okanawa, Japan, on Christmas Eve 1945."Tex" and Mary Clark are the women seated on the front row watching the Christmas show.
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- Oral history interview with Ruth White
- Primarily documents Ruth Matthews White's experiences at the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina (now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro); her service in the Philippines and Japan with the Red Cross during World War II; and her life after resigning from the Red Cross. Pre-war topics include working at Belk's Department Store in Greensboro; involvement in campus activities at the Woman's College (WC); political awareness at WC; dances at WC for men from the nearby Overseas Replacement Depot; rationing; starting a marching group at WC; and hearing about the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. She also talks about her living arrangements, teaching duties, and social life in New Orleans, Louisiana, in the early 1940s. " White recalls joining the Red Cross with her roommate; her admiration for President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt; Red Cross training; and the social life on the USS Marine Shark. Topics related to her service in the Philippines include being housed with recently-released female prisoners of war, including nuns and Eskimos; rudimentary showers and toilets; club entertainment; volunteering to go to Okinawa; and collaboration between the military and the Red Cross. " Topics related to Okinawa include camping out until Quonset huts were built; the desolation of the island; security precautions; nutritional deficiencies; geography and landscape of Okinawa; club entertainment, including United Service Organization shows and bingo; visiting Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan; and almost dying from pneumonia. " Other topics include starting Camp Awaniko with a friend after leaving the Red Cross and White's opinion of women in military combat positions.
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- Red Cross workers enjoy fresh milk
- Ruth White and three co-workers enjoy glasses of fresh milk, for which they traded their liquor rations, while stationed at the Buckner Bay (Nakagusuku Bay), Okinawa, in 1946. The women are in their quarters and sit on the bunks made for them by Seabees at the Naval Operating Base there.
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- Ruth White
- Formal portrait of Ruth M. White in Red Cross uniform, including hat, in 1945.
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- Ruth White and ping-pong tournament winners
- Ruth White, circa 1946, congratulating club ping-pong tournament winners, Paul Ptah and Dick Stone, in Okinawa, Japan, circa 1946.
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- Ruth White hands out doughnuts and coffee
- Ruth White feeding doughnuts and coffee to the men at a Red Cross club in Okinawa, Japan, circa 1946.
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- Ruth White in front of Club Doo-Little
- Ruth White (left), in Red Cross seersucker uniform, and a fellow worker in dark dress uniform stand in front of the sign outside of Club Doo-Little, circa 1946.
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- Ruth White in front of ruins
- Ruth White in field uniform stands in front of the ruins of the Legislative Building in Manila, Philippines, in the fall of 1945. The building had had been bombed during the Battle of Manila in February, 1945. Notations on the back of the photograph indicate the building was falling several inches every day. The photograph was probably printed in reverse.
