Florida State University Exhibit Examines the Role of Women During the World War II Era

A new online exhibit from Florida State University’s Institute on World War II and the Human Experience highlights the lives of American women during the war. “Women at War: At Home and Service in World War II” was initially scheduled to open in April at the Chipola Center for the Arts at Chipola College in Marianna, Florida, but moved to an online platform in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The exhibit features the wartime experiences of 12 women of varied backgrounds, sharing their important contributions from the home front to the front lines. The organizers used digitized materials, such as photographs, correspondence, military documents, and oral histories, from the archival collections housed at the institute to illustrate the experiences of American women during an extraordinary time in history.

“This exhibit not only highlights the extensive holdings of the Institute on World War II, but also the talents of a team of exceptional undergraduates who organized it,” said G. Kurt Piehler, associate professor of history and director of the Institute on World War II and the Human Experience. “The exhibit is another example of how the institute offers experiential opportunities to our undergraduate students.”

“It was an honor to tell the stories of these women, who lived through such a tumultuous time in history, and share them in this online experience,” said Emma Davis, a history major and Presidential Scholar at Florida State University who led a team of undergraduates to curate this exhibit under Dr. Piehler’s direction. “Our exhibit team immersed ourselves in the archival collections and chose objects that we felt would best represent the breadth of experiences and backgrounds that characterized women’s service in World War II.”

The exhibit may be viewed here.