Identity elements
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Name and location of repository
Level of description
Item
Title
D10409-A
Date(s)
- 1940-11 (Creation)
Extent
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Ethel (Mrs. Ben) Cheney is being measured for a uniform at an informational meeting at the Winthrop Hotel, organizing Tacoma's unit of the National Service League for Women. Col. Harriet Virginia, right, National Commander of the National Service League Motor Corps for Women, jots down the measurements. Over 150 women turned out for the meeting. The group offered instruction to women in motor mechanics and driving, first aid, short wave radio, semaphoring (flag signalling) and Morse Code. They trained the women to offer aid in a national or local emergency, becoming part of the Home Defense movement. Pictured left to right are Mrs. Aileen Schoonover, Mrs. Melville Grange (measuring), Mrs. Cheney and Col. Virginia. In February of 1941, the National Service League was declared a hoax by Walter West of the Better Business Bureau. "Colonel" Virginia and her husband James Fulton were using the bogus organization to sell substandard uniforms at inflated prices. "Colonel" Virginia was charged in Tacoma with Grand Larceny. The Tacoma Chapter split with the national organization and with its 40 surviving members continued on its own as the Women's Emergency Motor Corps, part of the Tacoma Home Defense Movement. ( T. Times 11/4/1940, pg.5; Hoax: T. Times 2/17/1941, pg. 1 plus succeeding days)
Cheney, Ethel; Virginia, Harriet; Schoonover, Aileen; Measuring; World War, 1939-1945--Women--Tacoma; World War, 1939-1945--Civil defense--Tacoma; Women's Emergency Motor Corps (Tacoma);