12:30:14 Hi, good afternoon everyone, thank you so much for joining us today for our presentation discovering history. The military women's Memorial. My name is Amy Po, I'm the collections manager at the memorial, and I'm here with our curator of collections,
12:30:32 British Grand rude.
12:30:33 For so delighted to be able to introduce you to the memorial and speak a bit about our collections today.
12:30:39 So before we get into the heart of our content, I just wanted to go over a few housekeeping things will be utilizing the live transcript for this session for accessibility purposes.
12:30:50 So if you'd like to hide the subtitles, simply click on the live transcription button at the bottom of your application, and then select type subtitle.
12:31:00 And if you zoom application is not maximized you may need to click on the three dots more icon to turn off the subtitles.
12:31:08 Please use the q amp a feature to pose questions to the two of us. And if we can hold questions and till the end of the presentation that'll really help us out a lot.
12:31:19 And we'll close out the session that way.
12:31:22 So to get us started.
12:31:25 And I wanted to share a brief video with you.
12:31:42 Okay, I apologize.
12:31:45 We'll try it again.
12:31:55 And then you have served on active duty from the world was at war.
12:32:02 This Memorial stand as testimony.
12:32:18 shouldered demands on our time
12:32:25 to all women.
12:32:48 today.
12:33:00 Now that we've given you a sense of who we are.
12:33:14 We'll introduce you to our mission and vision, and then we'll discuss some about the memorial itself which is the focal point of our organization a place of remembrance, and also an education center.
12:33:18 Then we'll give you an overview of our collections and touch briefly on our newest exhibit the color of freedom. And as we wrap up, will give you some more information on how you can learn more about us and our collections.
12:33:33 At this point I'd like to hand the presentation over to Britain, or curator who will continue our discussion.
12:33:42 Good afternoon and I'm pleased to be here with you today to tell you about the women and military service for America Memorial, or the military women's Memorial, and how we memorialized collect preserved disseminate long overlooked insignificant story
12:33:55 of the approximately 3 million women who have served in and with the military since the American Revolution.
12:34:03 Situated at the end of Memorial Drive at the gateway to Arlington National Cemetery, our nation, our militaries most sacred site and basing the Lincoln Memorial at the end the Memorial Bridge.
12:34:14 You may have seen or walk past a stunning beautiful and elegant structure and wondered what is this building. It is the military women's Memorial, the nation's first and only memorial to tell the nearly 250 year history of women who have always volunteered
12:34:30 in defense of our nation and honor their patriotism service, commitment, bravery and sacrifice.
12:34:37 Next slide please.
12:34:43 Justice military women have their history so too does the memorial in 1983 after the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Some World War Two women veterans said that it was about time to honor them.
12:34:57 What about us, we serve too many years of lobbying Congress and testimony followed, and in November 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed the bill that authorized the establishment of a memorial on federal lands in the District of Columbia, and its environments
12:35:13 to honor women who have served in the armed forces of the United States site selection was next was the next step and Arlington National Cemetery its original main gate structure with granite retaining wall was chosen, designed by the prestigious architectural
12:35:29 firm of McCann meet and white as part of the Memorial Bridge project. It was dedicated by President Hoover in 1932, but never completely finished and sat idle for 54 years until obtained by the foundation, a two stage national design competition was held
12:35:47 in 1989 and in November, a winner was announced from among 300 130 designs.
12:35:54 The winning team was led by New York architects, Marian wise and Michael Mann Freddie whose mother was a world war two I'm a nurse.
12:36:02 Next slide.
12:36:09 Weissman Friday design originally included tall glass spires rising from the original semi circular retaining walls up or terrorists.
12:36:18 This design was ultimately altered because of concerns that the illuminated spires would have to grade and impact on the historic Memorial corridor and did not blend harmoniously with the neoclassical architecture of these existing structure.
12:36:32 They went back to the drawing board and returned with an arc of glass tablets edge to with quotations vine about military women, and which would act as skylights and run the entire length of the exhibit gallery.
12:36:45 In June, 1995, a groundbreaking ceremony was held and the completed memorial was dedicated and open to the public on October 18 1997.
12:36:55 The memorial includes a quarter valor with it's reflecting pool and 200 Jed fountain representing the sound of women's voices.
12:37:03 The upper terrace features stunning views of monumental Washington and Arlington National Cemetery, as well as the memorial signature arc of glass tablets or stairwells leading to the upper terrace breach the original wall in symbolize women breaking
12:37:18 through barriers in the military.
12:37:20 Behind the original wall is an exhibit gallery 196 feet theater gift shop in the hall of honor.
12:37:27 Next slide please.
12:37:32 We are a staff of some 30 employees, including many military veterans are those affiliated with the military such as spouses or children.
12:37:39 We maintain the register an interactive computer database which holds the names service data memorable experience. Awards and decorations and photographs of the nearly 300,000 when service have been registered operate the memorial and work behind the
12:37:54 scenes at the foundation offices collections team of myself. collections manager Amy po and a collection systems don't maintain and use the military women's Memorial Foundation collection.
12:38:07 Oral History collection and library and create exhibits. Next slide please.
12:38:22 We honor military women by telling their stories of service, dedication bravery and sacrifice. Yes quotations buying about military women on the ark of glass tablets reflect on to the gallery walls.
12:38:29 As the sun passes overhead, we pay tribute to those service women who were killed in action, died in line of duty, a prisoner of war, or were recipients of the, of our nation's highest award for service and bravery in the hall of honor.
12:38:49 With it silent sentinels, this is your stones remarkable tablets from the same Corey as the Tomb of the Unknown.
12:38:55 Next slide.
12:39:01 We are committed to helping the public understand the rich history and culture of America's military women, the register the heart of the memorial offers visitors a unique look at the nearly 300,000 individual stories that make up the collective history
12:39:15 of women's service. While substantial and likely the largest repository of military women's stories is number however represents less than 10% of the approximately 3 million women who have served since the American Revolution, a vital resource the collections
12:39:30 are used to create exhibits and programming at the memorial and are available to researchers have all kinds sense to institutions from the National to the local level.
12:39:41 Next slide.
12:39:46 From our Veterans Day and Memorial Day ceremonies to our programming to using registrations, and the collections to collaborating with outside institutions and my serving as a venue.
12:39:57 recognize the story, and the recognize the legacy of service that has been passed down from generation to generation and highlight common bonds of service commitment patriotism courage and professionalism which resonate across the years.
12:40:15 Thank you and I will now turn it over to our collections manager Amy Po, who will tell you about our collections
12:40:25 experience.
12:40:25 It's pretty mentioned earlier the memorial collects preserves and share stories of women's military service from the Revolutionary War to the present, and we document women's service in all of the military branches that you might recognize such as the
12:40:39 Army, Navy, Air Force Marine Corps and Coast Guard.
12:40:43 But we also recognize service of women who were part of the predecessor organizations such as the Women's Army auxiliary core which later became the Women's Army Corps.
12:40:54 The women's air for service pilots and the Coast Guard spars named after the Latin motto, always prepared.
12:41:12 Early as 20 century collections also address women's service with organizations that work side by side during wartime, such as the American Red Cross, and in the present day we recognize the women's uniform civil service organizations such as the US public
12:41:21 health service.
12:41:22 So how was our collection created. Well, when the memorial was under construction in 1994 call went out to gather artifacts, documenting the military service of women in the armed forces and related organizations.
12:41:38 Today the collection comprises more than 8000 donations, in a wide range of media.
12:41:44 We have a substantial textile collection, which includes women's uniform staging from World War One. up to the present.
12:41:52 We have a wide range of objects, things that you might expect to find in a collection such as ours like metals and military gear. But we also have original artwork created by military service women and scrapbooks and diaries, or documents or things you
12:42:09 might also expect to find such as military orders. And we also have a great deal of word time correspondence, as well as unique manuscripts, or photographs document women's social lives while serving in on in the various branches of the military, as well
12:42:28 as their combat experiences, these collections were contributed by service members, their families, and interested organizations. Now comprising upwards of 5000 donors.
12:42:43 Addressing the historic significance of the morals creation, as previously described by Britta.
12:42:48 We also have a significant institutional archive, which documents the creation of the memorial, the design competition for the building itself and related architectural materials.
12:43:01 We also have within our archive documentation of our operations and activities. Since our time of opening in 1997.
12:43:13 Aside from our archives we maintain a nearly 2000 volume library, and a robust oral history collection, including first hand accounts of women's military service, from the time of World War One.
12:43:27 Over the years we've also collaborated with the Library of Congress, which holds a subset of our oral history collection, through their Veterans History Project.
12:43:38 Now just to give you an idea of some of the items in our collections of just inserted a sample here, we have an original painting of a world war two whack on the left.
12:43:51 Next to it, you have some snapshots of some scrapbooks that were created by women service members, during the World War Two era.
12:44:01 second from the right.
12:44:03 There is a contract here for nurses to provide support to the military during the Spanish American War, even before, women were officially a part of the military.
12:44:17 And then on the far right, we have a few artifacts from World War One, including a photo album.
12:44:26 Drawing on our collection.
12:44:29 Our newest exhibit is the color of freedom.
12:44:33 And we have some photos here of the installed exhibit at the memorial.
12:44:39 This exhibit was developed in part as a response to the national conversation around dismantling systemic racism.
12:44:48 The military women's Memorial, however, has always represented the diversity of women within the armed forces, but we felt that current events provided an opportunity to highlight some of the lesser known stories of the diverse women who have served this
12:45:03 country, in a variety of capacities over time.
12:45:08 We are highlighting here in this exhibit 35, women who have served me. And we strived in all cases to represent these stories in their own words, when that was possible.
12:45:21 You'll see that the colors that we selected for the exhibit are purple and gold.
12:45:27 And this was as a nod to the role that Women's World War One service played in gaining women's suffrage.
12:45:36 All women who served in the military face discrimination based on their gender, and often found them unwelcome.
12:45:44 Many of the women featured in our stories in our exhibit face further challenges due to their race, ethnicity, and other issues surrounding either their cultural affiliation or identity, but still they found meaning and value in serving their country,
12:46:02 to build on the exhibit stories we also included some artifacts, you see two uniforms here. One worn by charity Adams early who was the first African American, commander of a Women's Army Corps unit stationed in Europe.
12:46:17 She led the six triple eight central postal Directorate battalion which reduced a tremendous backlog of mail that helped to boost morale of American troops overseas.
12:46:28 And then in the bottom right at this slide, you'll see depicted the uniform of Laura passed to a, who was the first new Native American woman killed in combat in the American armed forces and the first woman killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom recognized
12:46:45 recognizing that not everyone could get to the memorial do decoded.
12:46:48 We developed a virtual version of our exhibit online.
12:46:52 And we did this in omega which enabled us to feature some additional content about our exhibit artifacts that you might not be able to see in the exhibit cases.
12:47:05 While visiting the memorial proper. So I'm just going to try to provide you a glimpse here of the online exhibit and it looks like it's loading
12:47:22 did pull it up ahead of time but for some reason it's just been very slow today.
12:47:31 Okay, it looks like it's loading.
12:47:38 At present, the exhibit will be installed for the time being so if you'd like to visit the memorial you can come and see us in person, or you can scroll through our online exhibit which also includes an extensive military service integration timeline.
12:47:51 And then highlights of first achieved my by women over the course of the decades from 19, the 1980s to the present.
12:48:06 Just going to take us back
12:48:19 thanks for bearing with my navigation.
12:48:23 If you, if you've been interested in what you've heard today we'd like to encourage you to learn more about us by visiting our website, women's memorial.org.
12:48:31 You can do a number of things there if anyone in your family or yourself have served in the military.
12:48:40 You can register your service right there through our website online.
12:48:44 You can also schedule a visited us with us through Eventbrite. And then we have an events calendar posted for events that are in person and online. So we encourage you to check out those events and activities.
12:48:58 And then finally, if you would be interested in donating to our collections, or learning more about conducting research with us, feels, please feel free to contact me or contact me and we'll be happy to assist you.
12:49:11 Finally, we encourage you to check us out on social media, we have a lot of recent interviews and programming, especially on YouTube.
12:49:21 Thanks so much for your time and attention today and we are happy to answer any questions that you might have.
12:49:36 I see.
12:49:40 Okay.
12:49:43 Okay, I don't see any questions in the chat yet.
12:49:52 Oh, here's fun.
12:49:55 Do your collections include any materials related to transgender women.
12:50:05 Would you like to address the collection.
12:50:20 Her.
12:50:20 At this time we don't in it's not because we don't collect that material, it's just that has not really been offered to us and.
12:50:22 And we have.
12:50:26 Yeah, we just really haven't, it's not that we don't want to, you know, we.
12:50:32 So, at this time now, I'm sorry.
12:50:35 I do want to add to that.
12:50:38 Women who who are transgendered or individuals who have served and identify as women are encouraged to register their service with us. And we do have women who are currently registered with us who are transgender.
12:50:56 And I see a comment that there's some materials on transgender women in the Veterans History Project.
12:51:05 I have another question here. Do your exhibits rotate, for example is the new exhibit temporary.
12:51:14 I'm the exhibit was.
12:51:17 It will be up until November.
12:51:20 We are closing for about six months. In November, and we do have a fair number of exhibits that are up that have been up for a while.
12:51:29 We are in May.
12:51:34 We are bringing in a whole new exhibit from we're working in collaboration with an organization called the 19 us with artwork by women veterans, other male veterans spouses and children, and it will be part of our programming called summer of healing.
12:51:57 And they'll be three different stages. So that will be up from
12:52:04 starting in May.
12:52:09 So, um, we have our permanent collection permanent exhibits, and we have an eventual plan to do some renovations at the memorial.
12:52:22 But that will be a couple years out.
12:52:27 I see another question here about how we collect and use oral histories.
12:52:32 Right now we haven't been actively collecting oral histories, although we're investigating moving that program forward again we've been focused mainly on processing the existing collections.
12:52:46 A lot of them were current stories that have been gathered have been used in some of our programming.
12:52:52 Her story, programs, then, and you can see that content available through our YouTube channel.
12:53:00 However, we do work in collaboration with use researchers from some universities that use the oral history gathering program as part of their curriculum and instruction instruction around.
12:53:15 Women and Gender Studies.
12:53:18 need became and white. I'm sorry architecture architect, it was part of the.
12:53:34 It was supposed to be the ceremony on turns to Arlington National Cemetery, but it was never used, and it was part of the home Oriole bridge project. And it was completed in 1932 but then nothing ever really happened to it, it did not come the original
12:53:41 structure and when we were looking for sites, we found that it was available and we went ahead we obtained it. And that was how we ended up with the, with the site.
12:53:57 I believe we've answered all the questions that are in the q amp a so far if there are other questions, feel free to drop them in the q amp a or the chat.
12:54:11 There was a request Hi this is Elizabeth everybody your friendly Varick session volunteer, and there is a request to put the link to the exhibit in the chat.
12:54:27 All other questions about various topics so can you, can you see those questions you guys. Um, I just see the questions that we've answered so far. I'm going to put the link in the chat right now for the exhibit page I head up.
12:54:39 If you check the q amp a button at the bottom of the page, there are a number of questions.
12:54:45 Okay. I'm definitely clicked on that to pull up my panel, but let me try again. Ah, ok, I see them I apologize, I'm okay. The first question is can you tell me more about World War Two service women and the secrecy surrounding them I am studying was for
12:55:02 my thesis.
12:55:06 Um, I think since we are almost out of time. If you want to contact us directly that would probably be the best way for us to do that for you and to help you best.
12:55:16 Um, the next question is do you have artifacts from the Civil War Britta Do you want to address that quickly. We do we have a couple first edition books we have some metals, we have a bell from a convent that we have, we do have a few things.
12:55:32 And next question is how do you reach out and connect with veterans to encourage donations.
12:55:38 And we do have a national campaign on going right now to encourage women to register their service with us, the register is separate from our collections, but we do have information on contributing to our collections on our website.
12:55:55 And that is the primary way that people can reach us, and they hear about us through the registration campaign.
12:56:03 Um, let me a couple of them are questions about military spouses and married to service, you know, our mission is women in the military.
12:56:17 Who are those who served with organized, or uniform civilian organization so while you.
12:56:29 But they could probably
12:56:32 know is really the answer other than the kind of we, they also serves category but specifically our mission is women in the military.
12:56:42 So that's.
12:56:47 And I know we want to give full courtesy to the next group that's presenting. So, um, I just want to encourage you to please reach out to us with additional questions.
12:56:59 There's one short question is your repository located on site or do you utilize off site space.
12:57:06 Much of our collection is stored in. In, an outside location to provide proper storage conditions. We have an office space on Gleave road and the memorial but the memorial, or the office space are, are not suitable for the bulk of our collection so we
12:57:23 did use off site space.
12:57:26 And I apologize, I don't think we can give any additional answers I think we can take, we can take one more question. Let me do one more one more yeah another one so she has a grandmother who enlisted in the Navy and works is a switch for Yes she is registered
12:57:39 registered eligible for to be registered, and you can do that online it's women's memorial.org.
12:57:46 And if you do have any questions about who's eligible to register, feel free to reach out to us or we have a registry team on staff and they would be happy to help you.
12:57:54 you can find information about the register on our website.