Collections : [Barnard Archives & Special Collections]

The records of the Barnard Unit of the American Red Cross that went to France as a Repatriation Unit from 1917-1919 included a detailed, typewritten account of their arrival in France and their efforts to establish a distribution center, and obtain and distribute goods to the townspeople. Members of this unit were Dr. Eugenia Ingerman '11, Leslie Gardiner '07, Edith Balmford '13, Mildred Hodges '12, Margaret Peck '14, Georgia Cerow '12, Katharine Darrin '06, Jessie Nottingham '10, and M. Helen Davies '16. Also included were a medical inventory, roster of villages served, inventory lists, receipts, donation inventory and shipping list, and correspondence between Miss Leslie Gardiner, the Director of the Barnard Unit, and many of the recipients of the generosity of the Barnard Unit. Additionally, a souvenir-type booklet of photographs shows the Ruins of Cambrai (one of their locations) with picture after picture of rubble caused by the war. In addition to the souvenir booklet of photographs of Cambrai, there are over 20 photos of the living quarters and everyday life events of the Repatriation Unit in France, separate photos of Dr. Ingerman, Mildred Hodges, and Margaret Peck, photos with the British Army Unit that provided assistance, and the surrounding war-battered area.

The photographs in this series are organized chronologically from 1940 through 1945. The 1940 file houses one photograph of Madame Novotna in her dressing room on December 31, 1940, with 3 Barnard undergraduates – Winifred Beck '42, Patricia Lambdin '41, and Marjorie Madden '42, prior to a performance of the opera "Manon" which was performed for the benefit of the Barnard scholarship fund and British war relief on January 10, 1941.