Ann Kenyon’s Red Cross Uniform

Copyright La Crosse County Historical Society

Ivy King

Catalog Number: 1991.013.01

The Red Cross uniform pictured here was worn by Ann Kenyon during World War I, while she worked at the La Crosse Red Cross headquarters. Kenyon was a native of Winona, Minn., but she moved to La Crosse after marrying William Kenyon. She was born Dec. 26, 1874, which would have made her 43 when the United States entered the war in 1917.

Copyright La Crosse County Historical Society

La Crosse’s Red Cross chapter started in December 1915 after President William Howard Taft visited the city. Taft attended a Daughters of the American Revolution meeting, and there he helped create a strategy to form a local chapter, which officially began in 1916. One of Taft’s friends from college, George Burton, became the chairman of the La Crosse chapter.

After the United States entered the war, the Red Cross became a huge institution, nearly overnight. With the help of the Red Cross, the United States sent a series of commissions to Europe to administer help to the Allied military troops and civilians in need. Through the Red Cross, women knitted winter clothing for soldiers and wrapped a vast number of surgical dressings. The Red Cross also helped civilians on the home front during WWI, including responding to natural disasters and aiding many after the influenza pandemic hit the United States in 1918.

Nearing the end of the war, the La Crosse chapter had more than 12,400 members and 6,757 Junior Red Cross members, and nationally almost one-third of Americans either served as a volunteer or a donor to the Red Cross.

This white cotton uniform, with a red cross patch that reads “La Crosse,” is representative of other uniforms of the period and illustrates La Crosse’s involvement during the war. It would have been worn over either a nurse’s uniform or street clothes while working in the Red Cross office.

Dr. Edward Evans, first chief of staff at St. Francis Hospital, served six months overseas in the Red Cross. He also was the first director of the Young Women’s Christian Association during that same era. The local chapter of the YWCA was founded in 1903 and was housed in the top two floors of the Coren Building, 420 Main St.

Today the building houses a street-level business, The Wedding Tree, and the top floor is a beautifully restored event venue, The Court Above Main. The hardwood floor still shows the markings of the basketball court from the days when it was a YWCA gymnasium. You also can see the door to Evans’ office, which still has his name stenciled on it, incorporated into the front of the small serving bar.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on January 27, 2018.

This object can be viewed in our online collections database by clicking here.

1912 Victrola

Copyright La Crosse County Historical Society

Robert Mullen

Catalog Number: 1972.006.02

People who find their favorite songs on an online service probably don’t know much about music recorded under the brands Victor, Columbia or Edison. Yet, those names were the major players in recorded music 100 years ago.

In 1918, musical offerings didn’t come from wireless devices — they were recorded on hard rubber discs or wax cylinders. And these discs and cylinders were designed to be played on machines that were manufactured by those same companies.

The phonograph’s power came from a spring that was wound up by turning a crank on the side of the cabinet. The music was acoustical, played by a stylus that mechanically reproduced vibrations engraved or pressed into the revolving record, and the sound was amplified through a metal horn.

After the first phonograph was developed by Thomas Edison in 1877, other inventors played with the technology. They changed it, improved it and fiercely competed with Edison for a dominant position in the market, much like the music-streaming industry of the 21st century.

By the early 1900s, phonographs had found their way into many U.S. households. Two record formats — the flat disc made by Victor and the wax cylinder made by Edison’s company — were pitted against each other for some 20 years. Columbia used both disc and cylinder formats.

The companies offered many styles of music, from classical to ragtime to marches. They competed to record popular musicians and entertainers like operatic tenor Enrico Caruso, band leader John Phillip Sousa, or singers Sophie Tucker and Bert Walker. Because of their size, records were limited to two or three minutes in length, and artists were forced to shorten longer pieces of music, and new music being produced was composed to fit to that short time frame. This was the beginning of the standard length of pop tunes that is still used today.

Early 20th century phonographs were housed inside large standing cabinets that cost up to $300, too expensive for most people to purchase.

However, the disc phonograph, shown here, is an early tabletop model that was priced at $25, affordable for many families. It is a 1912 Victrola model VV-VI that was donated to the La Crosse County Historical Society in 1971 from the estate of Edith Wooley. It has an internal metal horn placed behind the two doors in the front. Opening and closing the doors helped to control the volume of the music. This model was a popular phonograph, with more than 700,000 manufactured between 1911 and 1925 by the Victor Talking Machine Co.

One-hundred years ago, someone in La Crosse was enjoying their own musical library with this Victrola. While they didn’t have a digital playlist in their mobile device, they had a choice of many records, with popular songs such as “Over There,” “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” and “Peg o’ My Heart.” Whether living in the 20th or 21st century, everyone loves to listen to their favorite music. Only songs and technology have changed.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on January 20, 2018.

This object can be viewed in our online collections database by clicking here.

1910s Bathing Suit

Carole Mullen

Copyright La Crosse County Historical Society

Catalog Number: 1987.051.33

This modest woolen swimsuit would have been considered quite modern — even daring — for women of the 1910s. Unlike heavy bathing costumes a decade or so earlier with puffed-sleeve dresses, bloomers and long black stockings, it fit the body and allowed for actual swimming.

In Victorian times, most women took dips in the water rather than swimming or diving. Women visiting the ocean jumped through waves while holding onto a rope attached to a buoy. But a growing trend toward athleticism in the early 20th century made more practical swimwear for women necessary.

Form-fitting swimsuits for women were initially controversial. In 1907, swimmer Annette Kellerman from Australia visited the United States as an “underwater ballerina,” a version of synchronized swimming involving diving into glass tanks. She was arrested on a Boston beach for indecent exposure because her swimsuit showed her arms, legs and neck.

Kellerman adapted her suit with long sleeves, long legs and a collar. It became known as “the Annette Kellerman,” and, despite opposition from some groups, it became quite popular. One-piece swimming tights became accepted swimsuit attire for women, and radually the long sleeves and legs were shortened.

By the 1912 Olympics, women were swimming competitively, wearing swimsuits with short sleeves and legs ending at mid-thigh. Twenty-seven women from eight countries (though none from the United States) participated in two events, the 100-meter freestyle and 4X100 freestyle relay.

In the United States, the term “swim suit” was first coined in 1915 by Jantzen Knitting Mills, a former California sweater manufacturer. Wool was the preferred fabric because it was opaque in water. Although many women still wore long matching stockings with swimsuits, legs were no longer completely hidden. Stocking lengths varied from almost touching the swimsuit to knee-high or shorter — depending on the discretion or daring of the individual. Jantzen also developed a popular unisex swimsuit similar to this one.

This full-length charcoal grey swimsuit by Gantner & Mattern of San Francisco featured buttons at the shoulders, and it ended in boy-leg drawers covered by a tunic. Sets of black, gray and white stripes accentuated the chest and hem.

The swimsuit was donated by the Quincy Hale family of La Crosse. Hale was a prominent La Crosse lawyer and community leader. It’s likely his wife, Helen, once wore this suit, marking the progress of women while gracing a La Crosse beach with the latest in swimwear fashion.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on January 13, 2018.

This object can be viewed in our online collections database by clicking here.