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Object Description
| Title | [Letter from Mary Lapham, 1918] |
| Date | 1918-11-12 |
| Subject headings |
World War, 1914-1918 American Red Cross |
| Era | World War I era (1917-1920) |
| Service branch | Red Cross |
| Item description | In this letter to an unidentified recipient, Dr. Lapham recalls WWI Armistice Day and the celebrations in Paris. She describes joy and chaos in the streets, and ponders her future and that of the Red Cross. This memoir is written on letterhead from "Metro and Nord-Sud: Montparnasse" which contains advertisements for Paris hotels and restaurants. |
| Veteran's name | Lapham, Mary Emily |
| Veteran's biography |
Mary Emily Lapham (1860-1936) was a doctor known for her research with tuberculosis patients. During WWI, she traveled to Europe on a Red Cross Medical Mission . Mary Emily Lapham (1860-1936) was born in Northfield, Michigan, to Jared S. and Martha Gregory Lapham. She worked at her father's bank until sometime in the early 1890s. After her father's death, she traveled to Highlands, North Carolina, where she stayed for four years before purchasing fifteen acres of land on nearby Satulah Mountain. There she built her home which came to be named "Faraway." While in Highlands, Lapham observed the lack of medical attention received by the local population, especially women. Lapham's observations finalized her decision to study medicine. She left North Carolina to attend Women's Medical College of Philadelphia, from which she graduated in 1901. She then traveled to Germany, Austria, and Switzerland for advanced study . After returning from Europe, Lapham settled at "Faraway" with her friends Caroline Barker and Edith Bloomer Dougall, along with Edith's adopted daughter, Valerie Ashton-Dougall. The ladies were especially interested in music, particularly opera, and would often travel to Europe for operatic festivals . In 1908, Dr. Lapham built Highlands Camp Sanatorium, a facility for the treatment of tuberculosis, where she specialized in pneumotherapy. The hospital operated for ten years before it burned in January of 1918 . In March 1918, Dr. Lapham set sail for France on a Red Cross Medical Mission. She was station in La Rochelle, France, were she set up a dispensary and hospital for refugees. When the dispensary closed after the conclusion of WWI, Dr. Lapham was reassigned to another Red Cross mission. From January through March 1919, she traveled through Brittany, France, giving mother/baby health clinics. In April, Dr. Lapham was appointed physician to the Red Cross's Czecho-Slovakian Commission, and was assigned to Prague, then Petrovatz. From August through September 1919, she assisted the Red Cross in taking five hundred refugee children into the Tatra Mountains for a health camp. Dr. Lapham returned to the United States in early February of 1920 . Little is known of what Dr. Lapham did after her return. Per information in her letters, she may have taken a job with the G.W. Carnrick Company in New York City. Mary Lapham died at her winter home in St. Augustine, Florida, in 1936, at the age of 75. |
| Type | text |
| Original format | correspondence |
| Original publisher | [Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified] |
| Language | en |
| Contributing institution | Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries |
| Source collection | WV0418 Dr. Mary Emily Lapham Papers, 1917 - 1920 |
| Collection summary | The collection consists primarily of letters written by Mary Lapham during her time with the Red Cross. The letters document Lapham's day-to-day activities from March 1918, when her ship sailed from New York City, until she returned to the United States in January 1920. The letters are posted from Paris, La Rochelle, and towns across Brittany in France; also, Prague, Petrovatz, Marienbad, and the Children's Camp at Nizni Smokovec in Czechoslovakia." In addition to the letters from Lapham, there are several photographs and postcards. Reports Lapham wrote about the dispensary and the children's camp are included in her writings. There are also copies of articles concerning Dr. Alice Masaryk of Czechoslovakia and Countess Teleki of Budapest that Dr. Lapham tried to have published in the United States." Also included in the collection are letters to Dr. Lapham and miscellaneous materials, newspapers clippings, and telegraphs relating to her time in Europe. |
| Box | 1 |
| Folder | 3: Correspondence from Mary Lapham, 1918 October-December |
| Finding aid link | http://libapps.uncg.edu/archon/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=307 |
| Rights statement | http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
| Additional rights information | IN COPYRIGHT. This item is subject to copyright. Contact the rights holder noted above for permission to reuse. |
| Object ID | WV0418.4.001 |
| Digital publisher | The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, University Libraries, PO Box 26170, Greensboro NC 27402-6170, 336.334.5304 -- http://library.uncg.edu/ |
| Full-text transcript |
We were up in the Red Cross when the big guns went off yesterday - Way up in the 5th story - talking about work in Belgium with Major Harris - We rushed to the window - everyone doing the same - In an instant everyone was out on balconies - the whole building covered with flags - the street crowded with cheering - yelling people - and Jeanne d'arc covered with flags - We were at Estampes all the afternoon - but managed to get back about 8 to the Place de l'Opera although it was hard work getting there! The seets[sic] were jammed - not crowded but packed - there was an intense excitement - much drinking - yelling - singing and general rejoicing - One [unclear] half seas over could not quite get in - He begged for room for his face - his leg didn't matter - if it was broken outside he could get another - it was only wood - after a few minutes he said - C'est toujours de bois - �a ne change pas - Ah, voila, un am�ricain - �a vous interesse? Etc Etc - and at the opera - just a torrent of humanity surging past - lights - Klaxons - combs - horns - mouth organs - endless processions - cheering - kissing - dansing[sic] - ""Have you heard the news? The war is over"" - They captured a big automobile - dancing frantically around it so that it could not move - no policemen - their hands on the shoulders in front - they formed long lines and danced in and out of cafes, and around the tables for drinks - singing as loud as loud. We sat at tables or stood at the edge of the walk as long as we could - but finally - like everyone else we were drawn into the current and were soon marching down the Capucueis[sic], the Neadelenie[sic], Rue Royale, Place Concorde, around the German cannons piled up there - with small boys perched up on the tilted ends violently waving French flags - We were headed by a gang of poles - who stopped periodically in front of the blazing lights of cafes - to sing and wave their flags - The English tried to get their flag highest - the Americans, ours - platforms were made of shoulders - and drunk with joy - the flag bearers tetered[sic] along - The uneven steps making their position very precarious - Dancing everywhere in the Concorde. Any man seized any girl - swept her off - and dancing to singing they hopped like crazy fleas desperately trying to escape - As we went through the subway gates - the keepers shouted �a y est - �a y est - On les a on les a - and over in the Latin Quarter - all night I heard the old student songs - flocks of students with accordeons[sic] singing J'aime les �tudiants - ma m�re - J`aime les �tudiants - mais l`on s`en fou-mais l`on s�n fou - de la petite femme sans sou - For two nights - guns and racket incessant- but now the shouting is over - We go back to La Rochelle - and back to work with fierce will to do better - to work harder - to relieve more suffering - and presently we shall be transferred, to Louvain - I hope - We have pulled everywhere there was a wire to pull - for I would like my 200 a month and you all over here for a year or more if it could be possible - and Louvain offers more hope of permanency than any other place - For three days we had to go back and forth to Etampes - 6 hours - in all - four hours in train - and the mornings at headquarters - so Paris has not been a lap of roses. The Minister of the Interior has been asked to interfere in my behalf - the Belgian minister - but there is a great tendency to place men in charge of such affairs - which will probably happen in this case - It is doubtful if a dispensary will be maintained in La Rochelle longer than another month - but this has been such a success that it should help get me a good place - Are you back from Savannah? Is the pain all gone? Are you all right now? And warm? If you were only somewhere down in Florida! You should have seen the Red Cross when peace was declared: no one knows what to do! The train was blocked so suddenly that it threw everyone off their feet! It is a big organization to bring up all at once with a sudden halt - and it threw us all off our feet - I was talking with Major Harris - editor of the War Magazine and that peace gun knocked his job all to pieces - ""What are we going to do now?" - says everyone! And so - back to work - and I hope the best of news from you! That you are well - comfortable - and glad that it is all over that either I come back to you or you come to me very soon - Germaine is just Valerie's age - and sends her photo to Valerie - They would probably like each other - She has a good deal of Valerie's temperament - Such a time these last two days - nothing much said - but shaking and trembling until I was fearful of a collapse - She is from Antwerp - never flinched nor fussed through the war - and when peace came - she went all to pieces - ""no more dead boys tonight - no more wounded"" - she had met the hospital train for 6 months and carried wounded to the hospitals, until her father took her away - and now it is all over - They will be going back soon - and they all deserve happiness - for they stood defeat so beautifully - not a murmur not a complaint - just waiting patiently - |
| OCLC number | 900817087 |
