Biography:

Louise Clarke Manship

Louise Clarke, a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, joined the American Red Cross in 1916. She served as a volunteer nurse with the United States Navy in France during World War I. Clarke also served with the navy in Guam for some time after the war. She was a charter member of the Jane A. Delano Nurses Post, which was formed in New York City in 1919. Clarke married Luther Manship, Jr., (1884-1956) in 1929, and the couple moved to Jackson, Hinds County, Mississippi, in that year. Louise Clarke Manship was a charter member of the American Legion. While chairing the child-welfare committee of the American Legion, Department of Mississippi, she developed a health camp for underprivileged children.

During World War II, Louise Clarke Manship supervised the recruitment of nurses in Mississippi for the Army and Navy Nurse Corps. She served as president of the American Legion Auxiliary, Department of Mississippi, and she also served as honorary commander of American Legion Post Number One in Jackson. Manship organized weekly dances for soldiers at the Jackson city auditorium. She also chaired the local Bundles for Britain program, receiving, sorting, and wrapping bundles of clothing and medical supplies for shipment to England. Bundles for Britain was an early World War II relief organization that solicited clothing, medical supplies, and financial aid in the United States. The national offices of the organization were located on Fifth Avenue in New York City, and a local office was located at 236 East Capitol Street in Jackson.

After World War II, Manship helped organize and was president of the Ladies Auxiliary of the Mississippi State Bar Association. She also helped organize and was later president of the Ladies Auxiliary of the Jackson Memorial Hospital. Manship worked in campaigns for polio prevention and the March of Dimes, and the Jackson Exchange Club enrolled her in its "Book of Golden Deeds." The Manships were members of St. Andrews Episcopal Cathedral in Jackson. Louise Clarke Manship died on May 17, 1985, and she was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Jackson.

 

Scope and Content Note:

This collection contains eight broadsides or posters publicizing Bundles for Britain relief efforts in the United States during World War II. All of the broadsides or posters provide a New York City address for receiving donations, and two of the broadsides provide a local address, 236 East Capitol Street, Jackson, Hinds County, Mississippi, where patrons could send donations.

Two dry-mounted broadsides are entitled "Blitzkrieg: Now is the Time to Aid England!" Copyrighted in 1940, Grant Wood contributed this illustration which depicts a woman shielding a child from German bombers flying overhead. Four dry-mounted broadsides (undated) are entitled "Air Raid Victim," and they reproduce a Cecil Beaton photograph of a young girl in a hospital bed with a bandage on her head. One "Air Raid Victim" broadside has attached information listing medical supplies and their cost. Two undated posters are entitled "Britain Must Win," and they depict a flag-draped female figure raising a torch.

 
Series Identification:

Series 1: Broadsides and Posters. 1940; n.d. 2 folders.