IOWA WOMENS ARCHIVES
UNIVERSITY OF IOWA LIBRARIES
IOWA CITY, IOWA
ELIZABETH ANNA GERNES
(1907- )
ORAL HISTORY AND
TRANSCRIPT, 1996
.25 linear inch and
audiovisual material
|
ACQUISITION: |
The oral
history and transcript (donor no. ) was donated by Elizabeth Anna Gernes in 1996. |
|
ACCESS: |
The oral
history and transcript is open for research. |
|
AUDIOVISUAL: |
One audiocassette shelved in audiocassette collection (AC). |
|
COPYRIGHT: |
Copyright has been transferred to the University of Iowa. |
|
PROCESSED BY: |
Rachel Bohlmann, 1996. |
Biography
Elizabeth Anna Gernes, educator and Red
Cross leader, was born in 1907 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. When a child, she moved with her parents,
William H. Gernes and Anna Philomina Deutscher Gernes, to Winona, Minnesota. Gernes graduated from the College of St.
Teresa, a Catholic women's college in Winona, where she majored in physics and
mathematics. After college she taught
science and math in high schools in northern and southeastern Minnesota.
During the 1930s Gernes worked briefly
for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in Iowa as a Director of
Training. She helped people develop
skills needed to become trained health care workers.
By 1943 Gernes had earned an M.A. and Ph.D. in
secondary education at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Around this time, Gernes also began work
with the Red Cross as a General Field Representative in the Midwest. By the spring of 1955 Gernes had been named
Director of the American Junior Red Cross in Western Europe and was based in Stuttgart,
West Germany. She traveled extensively
in Western Europe and North Africa to promote youth participation in Junior Red
Cross programs. Two and a half years
later, Gernes returned to the United States and worked as Director of Training
for the American Red Cross in San Francisco, coordinating chapters in twelve
western states.
Gernes retired from the Red Cross in 1972 but
remained active in relief and other volunteer work. In the late 1970s the Shah requested Gernes by name to organize
Junior Red Crosses in Iran. The
International Red Cross subsequently requested a report from Gernes on
humanitarian conditions there. In 1983
Gernes returned to Iowa and moved to Johnston, Iowa.
Scope and
Content Note
The Elizabeth Anna Gernes oral history was taped on July 10, 1996
with Rachel Bohlmann in Gernes's hospice room at Kavanaugh House in Des Moines,
Iowa. The history was recorded on
audiocassette and is less than one hour in length.
The Gernes history provides an oral record
of one woman's life and work and her reflections upon them. Gernes discusses her education, including
her graduate work at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, her brief WPA
tenure, and her long career with the Red Cross in the United States and Europe.
Scope and Content Note (cont.)
Note to researchers: Gernes was very ill at the time of the taping. Because the interview is difficult to hear
in places and includes long pauses, we suggest you use the typewritten
transcript as opposed to the audiotape.
Oral History
Transcript Table of Contents:
Page
Introduction,
personal information and early life.....
.. 1
Undergraduate
education and teaching..................
2
Graduate
work.........................................
.. 3
WPA
in Iowa...........................................
.. 5
Red
Cross (general)...................................
7
Red
Cross in Europe...................................
.. 11
Red
Cross in San Francisco............................
.. 14
Conclusion............................................
14
Folder no. Description
Folder 1
Oral history, 1996 [shelved
in audiocassette collection: AC ]
Transcript of oral history,
1996