World War I Organizations Records, WWI 6

Scope and Content:

The American Legion was officially formed in March 1919 in Paris, France, by members of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) who fought in World War I. The organization was chartered by the U.S. Congress in 1919 as a patriotic veterans' organization. The materials in Series I, though dated long after World War I in most cases, constitute the first official records of the North Carolina Department of the American Legion after their founding. The membership lists by city Legion post identify which World War I veterans by community first participated in the new American Legion.

Several interesting items in this series include a printed advertisement for a minstrels show program, sponsored by the Weldon, North Carolina post. Another interesting item is the official Disabled Veterans Memorial to the President, which represented an early effort of veterans of the twentieth century to make their concerns and plight heard by public officials. Another interesting item are two ACLU pamphlets, apparently sponsored by or collected by the North Carolina American Legion, that discuss and expose the racial hatred of the reborn 1920s Ku Klux Klan. These pamphlets, reprinted from published accounts, feature graphic cartoons related to the hatred of the Klan as seen by the pamphlets' publishers.

A final item of interest are the American Legion Auxiliary materials, which document the role of the women's branch of the American Legion in fighting for veterans' care and issues in North Carolina. Lists of North Carolina women who were veterans or spouses of veterans fighting for veterans' issues are documented in these materials.

The series is arranged in order from state department materials, to local city and county materials, to miscellaneous and national American Legion materials, and lastly American Legion Auxiliary materials.

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The American Red Cross is a nonprofit humanitarian organization dedicated to helping citizens prepare for and respond to large-scale emergencies, formed in 1881. In North Carolina, women often took the lead in organizing Red Cross chapters. Some of the state's first chapters were formed in Buncombe, Rowan, and New Hanover Counties. A Wilmington chapter was organized on 10 Nov. 1908 and an Asheville chapter in 1911. During World War I, the North Carolina American Red Cross became one of the state's largest war work and troop support organizations during the war.

Every county had a chapter, with many towns and cities in each county also having their own chapters. The Red Cross chapters rolled bandages; packed Christmas boxes for troops overseas; operated war fund drives; served food to troop transport trucks and trains; operated canteens and bath houses at troop train stops around North Carolina; assisted in providing health care during the Spanish influenza outbreak; wrote letters to American service individuals overseas; served at Red Cross stations overseas during the war; offered nursing classes; and cared for disabled troops returning from the war.

Of interest in Series II are ledgers and lists of North Carolina Red Cross women who volunteered for home front war work and for work overseas during World War I. The series consists of compiled histories, supply lists, war work reports, and various other forms of documentation, showing the work of North Carolina county and city Red Cross chapters from 1917 to 1922. Several Red Cross canteen registers are represented in this series, though the Monroe, North Carolina Red Cross canteen register is housed in Series VIII: Oversized Materials (see Box 7).

There are also soldiers' correspondence to various individuals and to the Red Cross chapters, thanking the Red Cross for materials received (such as Christmas packages). One of Onslow County's chapters received such soldiers' correspondence (see Box 2, Folder 36). The local Red Cross chapters also provided information and witnesses for the War Department in North Carolina during investigations of suspected unpatriotic individuals, aliens, and suspected foreign agents (see War Department Questionnaires and Reports of Investigations, Box 4, Folder 15). The series features reports of several local Red Cross chapters' efforts during the Spanish influenza epidemic in 1918 and 1919, including figures of Red Cross workers who were killed by the pandemic.

There are original photographic prints of one of the largest Red Cross canteen and bath houses in North Carolina, operated in Raleigh by the Raleigh Red Cross chapter at the Johnston Street train station. Photographs include images showing a banquet for returning Wake County soldiers in 1919; American soldiers standing in line to use the bath houses; Raleigh Red Cross workers handing out reading materials and food to soldiers along the train tracks; and a snapshot of the oldest and youngest Raleigh chapter canteen workers knitting together in-between troop trains.

Materials in this series are arranged alphabetically by state chapter, than by county chapter, and lastly by miscellaneous state, regional, and national Red Cross materials. The county chapter materials are arranged by name of the county in which the chapters are located (if not the county chapter itself). Occasionally, there are multiple towns or cities represented by each county name listed in the box and folder inventory list. General state, regional Red Cross divisions, and national Red Cross materials are arranged at the end of the series.

A large number of North Carolina Red Cross war work materials and canteen registers not located in this collection can be found in the collection WWI 2 North Carolina County War Records. For Series II, Folder 24A through Folder 24D were labeled using letters at the end of the folder number in order to retain the original order and description of the collection, following the discovery after the collection was processed of other Red Cross chapter histories for North Carolina counties starting with the letter "G" were discovered elsewhere. These found chapter histories have been added into the existing arrangement in the alphabetical order of the counties' names.

Scope and Content:

The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) is comprised of women who have traced their families back at least to the time of the American Revolution and have found a forefather or foremother who served the revolutionary cause. The North Carolina chapter of the DAR, like its parent organization, is committed to the group's historical, educational, and patriotic ideals. During World War I, the female members of the North Carolina chapter of the DAR bought and sold wartime bonds; provided money, surgical dressings, garments, socks, and garment bags to the American Red Cross; and organized home front wartime activities for troops and civilians.

The materials in this series are the compiled history and information of the North Carolina DAR chapter's work during World War I in the state. There is no specific arrangement for this series.

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The Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, more commonly known as the Freemasons or Masons, is a secret fraternal society that has members in all parts of the world. The organization stresses the members' duty to their families, their country, and their fellow men and women, as well as the importance of religious belief. Each Freemason also pledges his allegiance to fellow members. The Grand Masonic Lodge of North Carolina was organized in 1787.

During World War I, like many other fraternal organizations, the Freemasons of North Carolina financially and materially supported home front activities. The small number of materials represented in Series IV documents the state's Freemasons' view of and duty during World War I for America and its service individuals. There is no specific arrangement for this series.

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On February 10, 1899, lawyers met in Raleigh, North Carolina, to establish a statewide association for the purpose of fostering goodwill among attorneys and improving the legal system, including codification of the laws. Called the North Carolina Bar Association, the association grew to become a voluntary organization of lawyers, paralegals and law students dedicated to serving the public and the legal profession. There are two bars in North Carolina: the voluntary North Carolina Bar Association, and the mandatory North Carolina State Bar. The North Carolina State Bar became responsible for testing and licensing applicants for the bar, disbarring lawyers, and concerned with substantive and procedural law and needed legislation. The state bar association supported patriotism, American service individuals, and returning veterans throughout the World War I period. The items in this series were received from the North Carolina Bar Association after World War I. The items are not detailed as to the bar's operations during the war. There is no specific arrangement for this series.

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The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) was founded in London in 1844. The YMCA arrived in the United States in Boston in 1851. The first YMCA in North Carolina was formed in Wilmington in 1857, followed by pre-Civil War associations in Charlotte, Raleigh, Salisbury, and Washington, and on the campus of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. By 1876, nine local YMCA associations, were in existence in North Carolina. By 1922, there were 22 YMCAs in the state, including some at colleges and universities.

During World War I, North Carolina YMCAs provided temporary housing for soldiers and those working for companies involved in war work. They also supported war fund drives, provided entertainment for troops both at home and overseas, and offered Christian services to American service individuals. Series VI contains several representative samples of original WWI-era booklets, portions of the Bible, YMCA magazines, and song booklets provided to American forces on their way to fight in Europe and North Africa during the war. There are also several miscellaneous publications and documents showing the YMCAs role in North Carolina during the war. Of particular interest is one original copy of a YMCA magazine for Czechoslovakian-Americans, marked with a Raleigh, North Carolina, YMCA stamp.

There is no specific arrangement for this series.

Scope and Content:

The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) was founded in London in 1855. The YWCA was first established in New York City in 1858. While the early YMCAs in North Carolina had ladies' auxiliaries, it was not until the early twentieth century that the YWCA movement reached North Carolina on its own standing. It is known that there were YWCAs in Asheville, Charlotte, Greensboro, and Winston-Salem by 1910, as well as student associations at a number of colleges and at the School for the Blind in Raleigh. There are very few original records of the North Carolina YWCAs' role in World War I, and only a few documents are represented in this series of the YWCA during the war.

There is no specific arrangement for this series.

Scope and Content:

Series VIII contains three oversized items originally stored folded in regular letter-sized file folders, or stored without an enclosure (in the case of the large canteen register). Box 7 contains the original Monroe, North Carolina, American Red Cross chapter's canteen hut register, signed by American service individuals stopping at the canteen on their way to training locations, military camps and forts, and ports of departure for Europe during World War I. Oversized Folder 1 contains two newspaper print advertisements for Red Cross roll calls, one nationally for 1920 and another for North Carolina that is undated.