Introduction
This primary source packet contains materials related to Haverford College’s response to the United States’ increased tensions with Germany and subsequent entry into World War I in 1917. As these sources demonstrate, the College implemented a number of strategies to support the war effort, including forming an emergency service unit, attempting to coordinate relief training with the Red Cross, and working in conjunction with the newly-formed American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) to provide relief in Europe. However, these sources also show that not everyone approved of the steps the College took to prepare students for a world at war.
These materials may support classes and research topics related to the history of World War I, peace and conflict studies, Quaker studies, military history, the history of higher education, and the history of Haverford College.
Packet contents:
- List of primary sources
- Guiding questions for engaging with the primary sources
- Materials which provide background on this topic:
- Kohrman, Allan. “Respectable Pacifists: Quaker Response to World War I.” Quaker History Vol. 75, No. 1 (Spring, 1986): 35-53 https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.haverford.edu/stable/41947063
- Johnson, Jack K. “‘Our United Effort’: Hamline University’s World War I Ambulance Company.” Minnesota History Vol. 64, No. 8 (Winter, 2015-16): 320-329. https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.haverford.edu/stable/24898890
- Faulkner, Richard S. “‘Our Patriotic Duty at Home and Abroad’: The University of Georgia in the First World War.” The Georgia Historical Quarterly Vol. 79, No. 4 (Winter, 1995): 920-939. https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.haverford.edu/stable/40583343
- Forbes, John. “Quaker Relief.” In The Quaker Star Under Seven Flags, 1917-1927, 15-30. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1962. https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.haverford.edu/stable/j.ctv5138x6.4 DOI: 10.2307/j.ctv5138x6.4
- Jones, Rufus M. “World-Wide Work of the American Friends Service Committee.” Bulletin of Friends Historical Association Vol. 26, No. 1 (Spring, 1937): 19-21. https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.haverford.edu/stable/41944029
Primary Sources
Excerpts from the Haverford College Emergency Unit scrapbook, 1917. HCS-000-005, Haverford College Emergency Unit scrapbook, 1917.
[digitized version]
Haverford Emergency Unit, ca. 1917. HCT-001, Haverford College Photograph Collection, Box 32, “Campus Life I, undated”
[digitized version]
Record of the Class, 1917. HCL-003-002, Haverford College Yearbooks, Box 5.
[digitized version]
Record of the Class, 1918. HCL-003-002, Haverford College Yearbooks, Box 5.
[digitized version]
Record of the Class, 1919. HCL-003-002, Haverford College Yearbooks, Box 6.
[digitized version]
President William Wistar Comfort correspondence with the Red Cross War Council, 1918. HCB-001-005, William Wistar Comfort presidential papers, Box 1, “Letters A-C”
[digitized version]
Francis Cope Hartshorne letter to William Wistar Comfort on the teaching of German at Haverford, May 25, 1918. HCB-001-005, William Wistar Comfort presidential papers, Box 1, “Letters D-H”
[digitized version]
Francis Cope Hartshorne letter to William Wistar Comfort on lack of military preparation at Haverford, August 9, 1918. HCB-001-005, William Wistar Comfort presidential papers, Box 1, “Letters D-H”
[digitized version]
Guiding Questions
- Who created these sources? For what purpose?
- Describe the implied audience for these materials. What informs your opinion?
- What does visual and textual evidence tell us about the attitudes of Haverford faculty, students, and staff towards military service and noncombatant service to support the war effort?
- In what ways were Haverford’s curriculum and campus activities challenged during this period?
- Do these sources tell us anything about broader American attitudes towards the war?
- What do “relief and reconstruction” efforts entail?
- How did the character of the campus community change during this period? Were any of these changes longlasting after the war?
- Whose voices are heard in these sources? Whose are not?