Katherine Hannan: The Intrepid Nurse Who Battled the Deadliest Flu Pandemic in History

By Erika Janes
via the Johnson & Johnson web site

Katherine HannanSome 50 million people would succumb to the Spanish influenza outbreak of 1918. And this Johnson & Johnson employee went out of her way to be at the very front lines of caring for the sick. 

For Johnson & Johnson employees, Our Credo is more than just a company mission statement—it’s a way of life. And even before the guiding document was crafted in 1943, employees personified its commitment to put the needs and well-being of the people we serve first.

For the latest installment in our Historic J&J Heroes series spotlighting the impressive feats of past employees, we're featuring Katherine Hannan, an employee who took Johnson & Johnson’s commitment to well-being to heart and put her nursing skills to use on the front lines during World War I. 

Her role at Johnson & Johnson …

Hannan, who was a nurse by training, worked in the early 1900s in Johnson & Johnson’s in-house advertising department, which was responsible for producing ads for such popular company products as sterile surgical dressings, Johnson's® Shaving Cream Soap and Red Cross® Kidney Plasters.

Why we think she’s worthy of being called a hero …

“When the United States entered World War I in 1917, the Red Cross put out a call for nurses and Katherine volunteered,” says Margaret Gurowitz,Chief Historian, Johnson & Johnson, Chief Historian at Johnson & Johnson. “She was a pioneer at Johnson & Johnson in that respect.”

In fact, Hannan is the only known female Johnson & Johnson employee to have volunteered for military service during that time. “Roles for women in the military were far more limited 100 years ago,” Gurowitz says, adding that nursing was one of the few positions women could fill.

As a field nurse for the U.S. Army, Hannan was first sent to General Hospital #6 at Fort McPherson in Georgia, where she was quickly promoted to head nurse and superintendent, overseeing 100 nurses.

Read more: Katherine Hannan: The Intrepid Nurse Who Battled the Deadliest Flu Pandemic in History

"Reconstruction aides awaiting transport overseas to U.S. Army hospitals, typically spent two weeks in the New York staging area learning military drills. Here, on July 4, 1918, a group in wool suits and capes prepares to swing onto Fifth Avenue as a band strikes up the cords of 'Onward Christian Soldiers.'" Source: Healing the Generations: A History of Physical Therapy and the American Physical Therapy Association,” by Wendy Murphy (1995), p. 57.

Remembering the Reconstruction Aides

via the American Physical Therapy Association web site

The American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) set a new record at the February 2018 Combined Sections Meeting, as over 17,000 attendees convened to learn, connect, and enhance their skills. APTA now has over 100,000 members across the country.

As we celebrate this milestone, we also commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first physical therapists in the United States, the reconstruction aides who were civilian employees of the Medical Department of the US Army during World War I. Marguerite Sanderson oversaw the first reconstruction aides, or "re-aides," in the newly created Division of Physical Reconstruction. Mary McMillan was appointed the first re-aide in February 1918 and organized the Physiotherapy Department at Walter Reed General Hospital. Of the original 18 Aides, 16 went on to form the American Women's Physical Therapeutic Association, which later became the American Physical Therapy Association with McMillan as president.

Reconstruction aides treat soldiers at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, 1919. Here are some little-known facts about these pioneering women.

They may not have been in combat, but re-aides still had to fight against Victorian-era attitudes toward women.

One early battle was about a uniform of bloomers rather than impractical skirts. Spoiler alert: They lost. According to Mia Donner Jameson:

Miss Sanderson was ahead of her times but was not able to overcome some of the objections of the 'men on the Hill,' i.e., the Senators and Congressman. One of her aims was to get us 'uniformed' in bloomers instead of skirts which she thought would be more practical for the mud and rain we might encounter.

These women would be jealous of today's more functional work attire.

Because much of their treatment included massage, the re-aides faced some unique challenges providing care to male soldiers. In 1918, Sanderson delivered a speech titled "The Massage Problem," expressing her concern that doctors, nurses, and patients alike might construe therapeutic massage as "medically dubious" at best and illicit at worst. The re-aides sought to address this by requiring professional physiotherapy education, treating only those who were medically in need of care and "assuming command of drill and sporting events," in which the women played against recovering soldiers.

Read more: Remembering the Reconstruction Aides

First women in the military show content of their character

via the American Military News web site

Opha Mae JohnsonMARINE CORPS LOGISTICS BASE BARSTOW, CA — In recognition of March as Women’s History Month, meet the trailblazing ladies who made history by becoming the first to serve in what had been a male-dominated profession, the United States military.

U.S. Marine Corps: Opha May Johnson

The first woman to join the Marine Corps was the 39-year-old wife of a District of Columbia orchestra conductor.

Born Opha May Jacob in Kokomo, Ind., in 1879, Opha May Johnson joined the Corps Aug. 13, 1918 — before she, or any woman for that matter, was even allowed to vote.

In 1918, as World War I raged on, Josephus Daniels, the Secretary of the Navy, opened the Marine Corps Reserves to women for service in clerical roles, so battle-ready male Marines could be sent overseas.

By luck of the draw, Johnson, a graduate of Wood’s Commercial College as a rapid-fire typist, was the first in line, among 300 other women, and became the first female Marine.

The first statue honoring a woman in military uniform, entitled “Molly Marine,” was dedicated in New Orleans in 1943 to encourage women to enlist, as well as to honor women who came after Johnson.

Johnson passed away in 1955 in Mount Alto Veterans Hospital in the District of Columbia.

U.S. Navy: Loretta Walsh

On March 21, 1917, Loretta Perfectus Walsh became America’s first official enlisted woman of any Service when she joined the Navy.

In the spring of 1917, the United States began preparing for the inevitability of war. However, men were not enlisting in sufficient numbers. On March 19, 1917, Navy Secretary Josephus Daniels determined that women could be enrolled in the U.S. Naval Reserve Force and issued an order authorizing their enlistment.

Read more: First women in the military show content of their character

The Mystery of the Vanished USS Cyclops Still Unsolved 100 Years Later

By Greg Norman
Fox News via the military.com web site

One hundred years ago Wednesday morning, March 14, the USS Cyclops, a massive American World War I transport ship hailed as a "floating coal mine," should have been docked in the waters off Baltimore, fresh off a journey from Brazil.

The USS Cyclops in 1913. The mammoth coal-hauling transport ship disappeared in 1918 and its whereabouts, to this day, remain unknown. (US Naval History and Heritage Command)But the vessel -- reported to be the Navy's biggest and fastest fuel ship at the time -- and the 309 men onboard it never pulled into the Chesapeake Bay on March 13, 1918, and its whereabouts to this day remain unknown.

"In terms of loss of life and size of ship, it's probably the last great mystery left unresolved," James Delgado, an underwater explorer, told the Baltimore Sun this week as recent discoveries of historical shipwrecks are renewing hopes amongst the scientific community of finally finding the Cyclops.

The 540-foot long and 65-foot wide ship, outfitted with 50-caliber machine guns to help transport doctors and supplies to American Expeditionary Forces in France during The Great War, was last seen in Barbados on March 4, 1918.

Built in Philadelphia eight years earlier, the USS Cyclops was capable of transporting 12,500 tons of coal and could lift two tons of it in single buckets along cables that ran along the ship, leading newspapers to call it a "floating coal mine," according to the Baltimore Sun.

But on its final journey, the Cyclops was loaded up with 10,000 tons of manganese ore -- a denser and heavier cargo -- and stopped at the Caribbean island for nine days to resupply before vanishing into the horizon.

Read more: The Mystery of the Vanished USS Cyclops Still Unsolved 100 Years Later

Contributions of WWI female soldiers too often forgotten 

By Carl J. Asszony
via the Morris County, NJ Daily Record newspaper web site

March is designated as Women’s History Month. It is the time we recognize and honor the many contributions of the American women. Their skills, sacrifices, and courage have added to the well-being, growth, and defense of this country. Their contributions have often been forgotten or overlooked. Such is the case of one special group of women whose story is one of heroism and betrayal.

The U.S. Army's “Hello Girls,” put through over 100,000 calls a day while operating their switchboards under difficult conditions during WWI.It was the time of World War I. The commander of the American forces, General John J. Pershing, needed a way to quickly transmit urgent military information. The telegraph messages were too slow getting to the front lines and radios were large, bulky, and difficult to haul about.

Pershing decided he wanted civilian trained telephone operators, such as those from the Bell Telephone company, who could speak both English and French. Their job would be to transmit communications via telephone, while serving in the Army Signal Corps near the front lines of battle.

Although thousands applied, only a few hundred were accepted. After several months of military training they boarded ships at Hoboken and headed for France. Despite the fact they didn’t yet have the right to vote these women volunteered for this hazardous duty to serve their country in time of need,. (Voting laws wouldn’t change until 1920).

These women, referred to as the “Hello Girls,” put through over 100,000 calls a day while operating their switchboards under difficult conditions. They often performed translations of English and French during inter-communications. Many were exposed to the dangers of war by being within a few miles of the combat.

Read more: Contributions of WWI female soldiers too often forgotten

Four Questions for Don Everhart

WWI Centennial Silver Dollar is last project for legendary U.S. Mint designer

By Chris Isleib
Director of Public Affairs, United States World War One Centennial Commission

Don Everhart is a legend in the world of numismatic design and sculpting. Don began his professional career at The Franklin Mint, where he worked as a sculptor from 1975 to 1980. From 1980 to 2004, he worked as a freelance artist, designing figurines, plates, coins, and medals for Walt Disney, Tiffany, the Royal Norwegian Mint and the British Royal Mint. He joined the U.S. Mint in 2004. There, he created designs for numerous coins and medals, notably the 2014 National Baseball Hall of Fame Commemorative Coins (selected 2016 Coin of the Year), designing the reverse and sculpting both sides of the first curved coins produced by the U.S. Mint. He designed and sculpted the common reverse for the Presidential $1 Coin and 14 obverse portraits in the series. His designs appear on three of the 50 State Quarters coins. Four of the designs in the America the Beautiful Quarters® Program are also his. Everhart has designed many Congressional Gold Medals, including the 2005 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Coretta Scott King medal obverse; the 2005 Dalai Lama medal obverse, both sides of the Barack Obama Second Term Presidential Medal and the reverse of the First Term medal. His work resides in the permanent collections of The Smithsonian Institute, The British museum, and The American Numismatic Society. He retired from the U.S. Mint last year as the Lead Sculptor, -- and his last coin project was our WWI Centennial Silver Dollar. Our WWI coin was special to him, so we discussed it with him, in the context of his incredible career.

What sort of projects have you worked on in your career as a coin sculptor and how did the project of the WWI Centennial coin compare to them?

Don Everhart I’ve done lots of different things in my career - figurative, analyst, landscape….This coin is one of a category. I had never done anything for WWI before. This coin was particularly special because my grandfather was in WWI. He wasn’t in it for long because the war ended but he was in it. This coin was also different in that I didn’t design it.

Basically there was an open competition where everyone was eligible to submit a design (except for gravers at the US mint) to committees in Washington, which then decided on the set that Leroy had drawn. The drawings and plasters Leroy sent were not mint ready. I had to take certain things under advisement, but tried to maintain the integrity of the design as much as I could.

After it was finished, I was talking with Leroy, and neither of us were really satisfied with it, and so I did it over. The second time around I used a softer clay so I could be more spontaneous with brush strokes and maintained the spontaneity of the design to make it mint ready. I just didn’t feel like I captured the work perfectly in the first coin and wanted to be sure to do it justice.

Can you explain what your creative process is like? How did this process function to produce the WWI Centennial Silver Dollar?

Normally I design the coins. When I design, I do one idea at a time and develop it completely. Since I didn’t design it, I started with a blank coin, which is basically like a slight shallow dish that is about a 1/16 of an inch, and then start by scrapping the coin down,

After I do an overlay of drawing, and cut out all the negative space of that drawing. Then can add on and take away from it at will in clay.

After I cast it in plaster, in which everything is negative (up is down, left is right, and vice versa), I put in detail, and cut into negative plaster to produce a relief in the detailing. The lettering is always put on later. Once happy with the details, I do the final positive piece of plaster. Some of my other work can be seen on my website doneverhartsculpture.com, if you are interested.

Read more: Four Questions for Don Everhart

WWI Women: Jane Arminda Delano

By Yasmin Chaudhary
Staff Writer, United States World War One Centennial Commission

Accomplished nurse Jane Arminda Delano played an integral part in the war effort through her mobilization of over twenty thousand American nurses. Her efforts earned her the Distinguished Service Medal, a place in the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame, and a memorial at Schuyler County Hospital in New York—among other honors.

Jane Arminda DelanoJane was one of the many descendants of Phillip de la Noye (who include Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Calvin Coolidge), an eighteen-year-old Frenchman who settled in Plymouth Colony in 1621.

After graduating from Bellevue Hospital School of Nursing, Jane worked with Yellow Fever victims in Florida, where she was known for her leadership skills and nursing innovations. She first became involved with the American Red Cross during the Spanish-American War; a few years later she returned to her alma mater to become director of the Training School for Nurses.

She stayed there until she started climbing ranks: in 1909 she became Superintendent of the US Army Nurse Corps, then President of the American Nurses Association and Chair of the National Committee of the Red Cross Nursing Service.By uniting the work of these three services, Jane created American Red Cross Nursing. When the US entered the Great War, she had eight thousand nurses ready for duty. Throughout the war, over twenty thousand of her nurses had served.

In the severe weather of January 1919, while on a Red Cross mission, she became ill with an ear infection. After treatment, she rallied briefly and continued her work. Later, several mastoid operations were performed, but her condition steadily worsened and she died on April 15, 1919. Her last words were, "I must get back to my work."

She is buried at Arlington National Cemetery, where stands a bronze memorial dedicated to her and the 296 nurses that died in the war.

Read more: WWI Women: Jane Arminda Delano

My journey with Captain Alfred Marcy Swenson 

By James F. Shetler
Special to the United States World War One Centennial Commission web site

Alfred Marcy Swenson was born on 7 Feb 1884 in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was raised and educated there, studying civil engineering at the University of Minnesota though due to contracting typhoid fever, he never completed his college education. He was employed as a civil engineer by a Canadian railroad prior to his military service.

Alfred Marcy SwensonIn 1916, he volunteered when a call for troops for the Mexican Border was made. He was stationed at Llano Grande, Texas for nine months with the First Minnesota Infantry, Company M. He entered the U.S. Army on 12 May 1917 at Ft. Snelling Minnesota. After training at Fort Snelling, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and Fort Dodge, Iowa he was assigned to the 313th Engineers Train, 88th Division.

First Lieutenant Swenson arrived in France in early September, 1918 and first went into action in the Haute Alsace Sector on 27 Sep 1918. On 10 Oct 1918 he was promoted to Captain.

After the Armistice, Polish officers were to be transported from France back to Poland. He was the only officer of the 88th Division commissioned to convoy those officers from France through Germany back to Poland. Captain Swenson made five such trips. He was to have been made Major in the Polish Army in recognition of his service to Poland.

On 11 Jun 1919, the night before his scheduled departure back to the United States, Captain Swenson was hit by a car ‘running at a high rate of speed’ on a Paris street. He died on 12 Jun 1919 at American Base Hospital No. 57 and was buried on 14 Jun 1919. He rests at the American Cemetery in the Paris suburb of Suresnes.

I received the dog tags of Captain Swenson in December, 2017 from a Dutchman as a token of appreciation for my help researching Swenson and other American WWI veterans. This Dutchman had previously received the dog tags in 2016 from an American veteran whom he guided on a WWI battlefield trip through Belgium and Northern France. This lady had bought the dog tags on eBay.

It’s a great honor to be in possession of Swenson’s dog tags. He would have been wearing them the night he was killed and he’d have been wearing them under his uniform in the photos I found of him. His parents would have received them with his other belongings after his death.

As I researched Captain Swenson I found there were actually many things we had in common.

Read more: My journey with Captain Alfred Marcy Swenson

Educational Resources for Teaching the Service and Sacrifice of African American WWI Soldiers

By Paul LaRue
Ohio World War I Commemoration Committee

I live in Washington Court House, a small town in rural southern Ohio. You might think this is an unusual place to learn about African American World War I Soldiers; you would be wrong!

American Legion Post 653, named after African American WWI soldier Homer Lawson (inset).Drive past the Homer Lawson American Legion Post #653 on Gregg Street, or take a stroll in our local cemetery. This is the history of my community, and possibly yours as well. You may not see rich history at first glance, but look a little deeper. The same rule applies to teaching about the service and sacrifice of African Americans in World War I.

At first glance, you might be tempted to say "there are no good resources;" again, you would be wrong. The World War I Centennial has helped create a renewed interest in African American World War I history, including the creation of educational resources.

As a thirty-year classroom teacher, I always like to connect classroom content locally, when possible. I also serve as a member of Ohio's WWI Centennial Committee, so education is a priority for me. The Ohio WWI Centennial Committee has created educational resources to assist educators in teaching the story of African American WWI Soldiers.

The first lesson plan focuses on the role of African American combat troops in WWI. "Searching for Homer Lawson" tells the story of local soldier Homer Lawson who was killed in combat in France. The majority of the approximately 380,000 African American WWI soldiers served in labor or service regiments. These soldiers' stories of service are no less important.

Read more: Educational Resources for Teaching the Service and Sacrifice of African American World War I...

Five Inventions of WWI and The Engineers Behind Them

By Irmak Vakıflı
via the interestingengineering.com web site

Women engineers, and women working in war industries made huge contributions during the First World War.World War I saw the boom in the Aerospace industry, numerous technological advancements and invention of weapons widely known today.

The First Tank: The Caterpillar built by Lombard and Roberts

Alvin Orlando Lombard was born in the United States of America in 1856.

Lombard, who was working with his brother Samuel to support his family, constantly demonstrated his talent for mechanical designs.

By first developing a model wood splitter which was powered by a water-wheel inspired by cucumber slices, the brothers succeeded to build huge steam-powered locomotives that slid on the skis.

These were also powered by huge tracks in the rear, which provided railroad vehicles the provision of not limiting each other on the road.

He was also the inventor of many other innovative products which included a pulpwood debarker, or pulpwood crusher.

In the 1900s, he invented the equipment which was called "continuous-track equipment", which he patented establishing his company named Lombard Steam Log Hauler. This company was formed in the year 1901.

He licensed his ideas to the Holt Manufacturing, which further led the way to Caterpillar after his heir David Roberts.

After 1917, Lombard's main focus was on betterment of the combustion engines in his company.

Inventor David Robert shaped the project of Lombard drawing his "train track tractor" in 1904, which could be produced by the Holt Manufacturing in 1914.

Train track tractor, which was transformed into "Caterpillar" (1907), wasn’t developed as a weapon at first.

It was suitable in conventional terrain mainly for agricultural purposes, but it played a pivotal role in tank production.

Sprung suspensions were omitted for the production of the first tank, and the track plates were improved.

Read more: 5 Inventions of WW1 and The Engineers Behind Them