UNC Greensboro held its 24th Annual Women Veterans Luncheon on Nov. 12 to honor the service of women who served in the United States Armed Forces and the American Red Cross. The virtual event attracted hundreds of participants from the U.S., Great Britain, Europe, and beyond.
The luncheon, part of the Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project (WVHP) in partnership with University Libraries, has been an annual event since 1997, and was established by the founder of the Women Veterans Historical Project, Betty Carter, who was the University Archivist at the time. Carter passed on September 29, 2021, and the luncheon included a tribute to her.
In addition to honoring the service of these incredible women, the luncheon served as an educational forum to discuss the contributions of women veterans, engage the veteran community at UNCG and Greensboro, and highlight the work of the WVHP and its ongoing oral history project.
Dr. Jane Brooks, a senior lecturer in the School of Health and Sciences at the University of Manchester, served as the keynote speaker. She was the 2015 recipient of the American Association for the History of Nursing Mary M. Roberts Award for the edited book, “One Hundred Years of Wartime Nursing Practices.” Brooks discussed British military nursing during World War II.
The Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project established at UNCG in 1998, documents the contributions of women and gender minorities in the military and the American Red Cross since World War I. There are over 700 collections with more than 450 oral histories, and the collections include a wide range of source material including photographs, letters, diaries, scrapbooks, oral histories, military patches and insignia, uniforms, and posters, as well as published works. Through active acquisition and educational outreach, the WVHP continues to expand its research collection to explore the cultural, social, and military changes in American society that have been fueled by the gender integration of the Armed forces.
Photography by Martin W. Kane, University Communications
