Clara Petersen, Army Nurse Corps, World War I - UPDATE June 2018

On a recent trip to celebrate our wedding anniversary in Madison, Wisconsin, Caroline and I were on Capitol Square and decided to visit the Wisconsin Veterans Museum. Pleasantly surprised that admission was free, we became immediately absorbed in the first gallery exhibition about Wisconsin in the U.S. Civil War, 1861 - 1865. We were fascinated by the information about the effects of injury and disease upon the soldiers in that war.

Moving on to the next gallery, we saw that it contained a temporary exhibition, remembering the contributions of  Wisconsin men and women in World War One:

 WWI BEYOND THE TRENCHES: 

Stories from the Front

My eye was immediately drawn to the far wall of the exhibition gallery, and the red cross flag, in a display of information about Wisconsin women who served as nurses in World War One.

Moving closer, I looked at the nurse's uniform, cap and boots in a display case posed before a stretcher.  Glancing at the wall, I saw this exhibit label:

Imagine my surprise and pride to see the service of my great-great Aunt, Clara C. Petersen, honored in this centennial exhibition of "The Great War."

Here are some other images from the display on Wisconsin nurses in that war:

 

The woman pictured below is Madison native Helen Bulovsky, who worked at Base Hospital #22, just outside of Bordeaux, France, in an area called the Beau Desert (Beautiful Desert). The nurse's cap and boots in the uniform display belonged to her.

This exhibition will be on display until July 13, 2020. 

My original blog post about Clara C. Petersen's service in World War One may be found here.

 

Clara Petersen, Army Nurse Corps, World War I

Clara Petersen (1886-1966) was two years old when her young mother died, leaving father Robert to work the farm near Elba, Nebraska and to raise four daughters, aged 7 to 2. Clara grew to be a strong, independent woman. Trained as a Red Cross nurse, at age 31 Clara volunteered for service in the Army Nurse Corps.

The Wisconsin Veterans Museum in Madison holds, among its collections, Clara's uniform and medical kit. When she donated those items, she wrote the following statement about her service:

”I was a member of Base Hosp. 11 which was a Chicago Unit comprised of Augustana St. Mary and St. Joseph nurses and doctors. I was on duty at Camp Upton, Long Island (New York) 3 months before going overseas. While there I was on duty with Base Hospital 11 from August 25, 1918 til January 15, 1919 and transported to Evacuation Hospital 28 which took over the Base 11 when their personnel was sent back to the States. I was with Evac. 28 until they closed about June 1, 1919, returned here in July. While in France stationed at Base Section 5 at Grand Blottereau”.

From the museum's searchable online artifacts collection, here is Clara's hat:

  

and medical kit:

  

Clara continued to care for the health needs of veterans, working at the National Military Home at Wood in Milwaukee during the 1930s. Her Christensen nephews remembered her as their "rich aunt," because she always drove a late model car. With a sister, she invested in rental property in California, where she died in 1966. 

Sources:

• MacDonald, Lyn. The Roses of no man's land: nurses on the Western front. London, England : Penguin books, 2013. Your local public library's interlibrary loan service can help you borrow a copy of this book if you are interested in this topic.

•  United States World War I Centennial Commission 

• wisvetsmuseum.com (To see more photographs of Clara's uniform, go to Collections->Search Collections->Collections Database->Advanced Search by Name of Clara Petersen).

• Portrait from: Yellowstone County, Montana, in the world war, 1917-1918-1919, by William W. Gail.