Presented by Kathy Barbieri Tomasetti, January 27, 2019
On the home front during WWI, women and girls of Framingham gathered weekly to support our soldiers “over there.” Formed in 1917, the Military Girls Club lifted the spirits of many young men with “comfort boxes” of sweets and necessities and regular correspondence.
Founding member and Treasurer Kathryn (Cassie) Harrington Jordan compiled a beautifully detailed Military Girls scrapbook from 1916-1919 with newspaper clippings detailing the club’s fundraising dances at Lake Waushakum, “arrived safely” postcards, letters, photographs and even patriotic Dennison stickers. Cassie’s granddaughter Kathryn (Kathy) Barbieri Tomasetti, reproduced this scrapbook for the Framingham History Center’s An American Town in WWI exhibit and shared more with us about this invaluable snapshot of Framingham during wartime and the indomitable spirit of the women who were left behind.