Vylla Poe Wilson Collection Finding Aid

Vylla Poe Wilson Collection Finding Aid

Mark Edwin Peterson

Brianna Eagle

FA000115

1919-1926

Documents, manuscripts, scrapbook pages, photos, picture postcards relating to the role of civilians, particularly women, in WWI.

Brian and Loretta Saxe

Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museuem

Cataloging of archival materials

English

5 boxes arranged by material type (manuscript collection, scrapbook, photos, and postcards.

The collection, compiled by Vylla Poe Wilson, show the work that she did with her sister, Elizabeth Ellicott Poe, in organizing the National Service Schools of the Women’s Section of the Navy League. The sisters also worked as journalists for the Washington Herald and the Washington Post, writing under the byline of The Poe Sisters.

The Poe collection focuses on the work of Elizabeth Ellicott Poe and Vylla Poe Wilson in the Woman’s Section of the Navy League and the National Service School (NSS), particularly schools no. 1 in Washington, D.C. and Chevy Chase, MD. and no. 3 in Lake Geneva, WI. The manuscript collection includes mainly NSS documents such as registration forms and recruitment brochures, as well as articles and press releases, financial records, and correspondence related to the NSS, the Navy League, and the death of Cassie Mason Myers Julian-James. Incoming correspondence also includes a photocopy of a letter from Herbert Hoover and a typewritten copy of a letter from Theodore Roosevelt. The scrapbook collection houses the contents of two scrapbooks related to the work of the Poe sisters with the Woman’s Section of the Navy League and the National Service School. Scrapbook pages are housed in two boxes, one box for each scrapbook. Content of these pages include newspaper clippings, brochures, reports, instructions for soldier care materials, and some correspondence. Scrapbook 1 focuses specifically on the National Service Schools across the country with news materials on the encampments during the summer of 1916 and documents related to everyday operations of the camp. Some materials on the Woman’s Section of the Navy League are included. Scrapbook 2, which contains items from 1916-1922, is wider in scope and focuses on the Woman’s Section of the Navy League, War Brothers Unit, War Mothers Unit, the National Service School, and other civilian soldiers’ aid organizations. The photo collection is housed in one box, arranged by subject. Most of the photos are copies of late 19th century celebrities, many of whom were American dollar princesses who married British aristocrats. It is unclear what significance these photos held for the Poe sisters, but nearly all the people in these portraits demonstrate a clear connection between the U.S. and Europe. There are also photos of the National Service School in Chevy Chase, M.D., and encampments at Lake Geneva, W.I., and San Fransisco, C.A. Also of interest are photos of Woodrow Wilson’s 1915 inauguration and photos of the American Historical Costume Collection (later the Smithsonian costume collection). The picture postcards are housed in a separate box and almost exclusively depict the attendees, staff, and activities of the National Service School. A few postcards were taken during Woodrow Wilson’s attendance of the first encampment’s opening ceremonies. Some of the postcards are duplicates of photos that have been printed on postcard paper. They are arranged according to the photographers’ numbering, with two folders of unnumbered postcards in the back of the box.