Name/Title
Twentieth Century Club Red Cross War Work 1917-18Entry/Object ID
2023.016Tags
Ward-BelmontScope and Content
Two documents detailing the Red Cross work of members of the Ward-Belmont Twentieth Century Club during World War I. From 1917 to 1918, twenty-six students participated in fundraising through the buying of liberty bonds and thrift stamps and made monetary contributions to the Red Cross, Belgian Relief Fund, and French orphan organizations. All twenty-six students were members of the Red Cross, with one being a life member. A total of over 90 items were knitted, with twenty girls also participating in sewing for the Red Cross, and eighteen sending literature (books, magazines, and joke books) to soldiers.
The handwritten document, dated April 27, 1917, states the following: “The president put before the club the desire of the Red Cross to have each of the girls or as many as possible could make a comfort bag for the soldiers on the border and many of the girls responded to the call.” A card with typed instructions for assembling the bags ("things the girls are to put in the comfort bags") is pinned to the document.Context
The Twentieth Century Club (T.C.C.) was a student organization and one of ten social clubs at Ward-Belmont, organized November 24, 1916. The club's purpose was an excerpt from English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson's collection Idylls of the King, specifically “Gareth and Lynette" (1872): "Live pure, speak true, right wrong, follow the King, Else, wherefore born!" The club's motto was "Ideas and Ideals." Per the 1943 Milestones yearbook, club members "strive toward one goal - the maintenance of the high ideals of both their club and their school."Collection
Harpeth Hall School ArchivesLexicon
Search Terms
Ward-Belmont, Twentieth Century Club, World War I, Comfort Bags, Red Cross, 1917, 1918
