Ohio Women in the Great War
Featuring Susan Talbot-Stanaway, retired director of the Zanesville Museum of Art

Elsie Janis, of Columbus, was the very first professional entertainer to perform before American troops at, and in, the front lines and hospitals of France and England. Already a movie star and the highest paid actress on Broadway, she paid her own expenses and took nothing but an occasional meal from the Army. May Cook, born in Chillicothe, was a sculptor, who did pioneering work with surgeons to restore the faces of soldiers. Mary E. Gladwin, who grew up in Akron, was a Red Cross nurse in Europe. For her World War I service, she was awarded the Serbian Royal Red Cross, Russian Imperial Medal, Ribbon of St. Anne, and the Florence Nightingale Medal. Ohio women also contributed to the victory on the home front in munitions factories, war gardens, and as volunteers with the Red Cross, the Y.W.C.A. and church groups. This talk highlights their fascinating stories.