A Blog About Women Who Were Homefront Heroines: the WAVES of World War II
Captain Herbert Underwood, who came out of retirement to head the WAVES officer training facility at Smith College with trainee Lt. Elizabet Boland Crandall in early October 1942. Note that she isn’t even in a WAVE uniform yet.
The photograph comes from the National Archives.
Another shot of Capen Hall, now the Alumnae House, used as quarters for WAVES officers in training at Smith College during World War II. It comes from the National Archives.
In early October, 1944, the first full WAVES officer class began training at Smith College in Northampton, MA. The women would train for their duties alongside students enrolled in the college at the time, and many of the campus buildings and haunts were taken over by the Navy. The initial officer class began in August for a compressed training session; they would be the ones training this new class.
This is Capen House, which was the principle WAVES dormitory.
A World War II-era WAVE sings “WAVES of the Navy” at the WAVES National Convention in Orlando, Florida, September 21.
Homefront Heroines Director Kathleen Ryan takes questions after the film’s preview at the WAVES National Convention in Orlando, Florida, September 21.
In this photo, WAVE Margaret Anderson Thorngate talks about how she first met Homefront Heroines Director Kathleen Ryan. This is at the film’s preview at the WAVES National Convention in Orlando, Florida.
The May 1946 edition of the WAVES Newsletter included this tantalizing tidbit: that women might be welcomed into the peacetime Navy.
The Women’s Armed Services Integration Act would pass in 1948, granting women permanent status in the Regular and Reserve forces of the Army, Navy and Marine Corps as well as in the newly created Air Force.
This clipping comes from The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University.
From the final edition of the WAVES Newsletter, published in May 1946. This clipping comes from The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University.
The last edition of the WAVES newsletter was published in May of 1946. The WAVE is Lottie Coltoniak of Rochester, New York, on dduty in Washington, DC.
It comes from The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University.
By April of 1946, most WAVES had been – or were being – released from military duty. One thing the Navy offered in its newsletter of that month were suggestions for how the newly-unemployed women could find work. Note the reminder: that WAVES are qualified for benefits, such as educational or loans, which all veterans would receive under the G.I. Bill of Rights.
This clipping comes from The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University.
Hinges of History 