Patriotism on the Home Front

Three-fourths of the wartime organizations in Virginia were women’s groups. These included the YWCA, Equal Suffrage League, Working Force of Negro Women, Council of Jewish Women, and the Virginia Federation of Women’s Clubs, as well as 115 Woman’s Liberty Loan committees and innumerable church groups. Such organizations conducted drives to raise funds to finance the war and to benefit the Red Cross. Male fraternal organizations did the same. Citizens were urged to recognize “Heatless, Meatless, Wheatless Days” and to donate food, clothes, and even aluminum, all in support of the war effort. 

This article was featured in the Virginia Magazine of History & Biography, Vol. 126, No. 1 in connection with the The Commonwealth and the Great War exhibition.

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Photograph of Bettie Noland
A young volunteer nurse, Bettie Noland wore her uniform when she sat to have her photograph taken by Richmond’s leading photographer. The resulting image is a powerful statement about both the seriousness with which Virginia women approached their duties and the pride that such service gave them. (Virginia Museum of History & Culture, 1991.1.33747.1)
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Black students at the Whittier School
These African American girls at the Whittier School (part of what is now Hampton University) are shown learning to knit clothing items for wounded soldiers. This was just one of the many ways that people of all ages supported the vast war effort. (National Archives)