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Niagara History Center: Learn about role WNY women played in WWI

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Tue, Sep 4th 2018 03:30 pm
Susan Eck will present on Western New York women during World War I at 2 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 27, at the Niagara History Center, 215 Niagara St., Lockport. Eck's narration about a tour of the 1901 Pan-American Exposition was a hit when she spoke at the History Center in 2016.
Local women who went abroad during WWI were varied in their background and motivations, but felt compelled to find a way to help the French and British armies, the Belgian and French refugees, and later the 4.7 million American "Sammies" who joined the war in 1917. About all these volunteers had in common was that they were single, educated, and most were from well-to-do families.
Listen to Alice Lord O'Brian and Anna Perit Rochester as they describe opening the first Red Cross Canteens in 1917, serving French Soldiers until the Americans arrived. Enjoy Doris Kellogg's exuberance over being able to assist in a hospital and canteens. See how Mary Belknap's experience with the wounded, and her own struggle with the pneumonia that accompanied influenza, drove her to come home to Lockport as soon as possible when the war ended.
Eck is a native Western New Yorker. After a career in teaching, she was an administrator at UB. It was there she became technologically literate, and, since retiring, she applied those skills to illuminating local history on the web. Now in her third career as a student of local history, she has been a guest curator and created virtual exhibits for the Buffalo History Museum. She has two websites, one on Western New York history (wnyhistory.org); the other on the 1901 Pan- American Exposition in Buffalo (panam1901.org).
This event is free and open to the public. Call 716-434-7433 for more information.

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