Nina M. H. Photograph Album
-
-
Nina M. Hodskin National Service School Photograph Album
-
Album contains 109 photographs documenting Nina M. Hodskin's training with the World War I era First National Service School in Chevy Chase, Maryland. This album begins with a group photograph of women in the school uniform and includes images of tent quarters, the staff, and students. The women were under the command of both male and female officers and some students who had risen in the ranks. Students were also able to go on trips which included Harper's Ferry, Mount Vernon, and Gettysburg, and other locations. A large section of the album features images from the Victory Parade and shows President Wilson and other officials celebrating the end of the war. It appears that upon graduation from the school, the compiler stayed at the Young Women's Christian Home in DC. The program specifically prepared students for war work such as, according to an article in The Washington Times, "making and applying bandages, home care of the sick and wounded, and nursing in hospitals for convalescents [as well as] service as chauffeurs, aviators, ambulance drivers, and other capacities heretofore filled by men alone... ." As far as the accomodations "the students will live in tents...in the same rough-and-ready fashion [as men] and a uniform style of dress will be recommended although it will not be a mandatory requirement. [They] will be grouped into companies of fifty women each under the command of a captain and two lieutenants to be selected from their numbers." The training program closed down in 1919, four years after its inception.