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{"id":5662,"date":"2014-12-27T11:00:44","date_gmt":"2014-12-27T16:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/?p=5662"},"modified":"2022-01-04T13:45:36","modified_gmt":"2022-01-04T18:45:36","slug":"christmas-in-wartime-a-formal-dinner-in-cap-and-apron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2014\/12\/27\/christmas-in-wartime-a-formal-dinner-in-cap-and-apron\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas in Wartime: a formal dinner in cap and apron"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Jeffrey S. Reznick <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>One-hundred years ago this week, Mary Dexter wrote to her mother, Emily Loud Sanford, about her experiences as a volunteer with the British Red Cross at the American Women’s War Relief Hospital in Paignton, South Devon. Christmas was approaching as Dexter and the other staff of the hospital braced themselves for another influx of wounded from the Western Front, all as they made preparations for the holiday, exchanged greetings, and looked to a pause in the rhythms of their volunteer service. This week <\/em>Circulating Now<em> shares a few of <a title=\"NLM's Circulating Now\" href=\"http:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/tag\/mary-dexter\/\">Mary Dexter’s<\/a> Christmastime letters.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/christmas-dinner.png?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"5683\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2014\/12\/27\/christmas-in-wartime-a-formal-dinner-in-cap-and-apron\/christmas-dinner\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/christmas-dinner.png?fit=1126%2C786&ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1126,786\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}\" data-image-title=\"Christmas-Dinner\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/christmas-dinner.png?fit=300%2C209&ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/christmas-dinner.png?fit=840%2C586&ssl=1\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-5683\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/christmas-dinner.png?resize=650%2C454&ssl=1\" alt=\"Christmas Dinner at Oldway House, many uniformed women sit a a very long candlelit dining table in a marble columned room.\" width=\"650\" height=\"454\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p>December 27, 1914<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/mary-dexter_square.png?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"5680\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2014\/12\/25\/christmas-in-wartime-you-should-have-heard-the-shouts\/mary-dexter_square\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/mary-dexter_square.png?fit=360%2C360&ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"360,360\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}\" data-image-title=\"Mary-Dexter_square\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/mary-dexter_square.png?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/mary-dexter_square.png?fit=360%2C360&ssl=1\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-5680\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/mary-dexter_square.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1\" alt=\"Mary Dexter in a nurses uniform.\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>Yesterday\u2014Boxing Day\u2014there was a Christmas dinner in the evening for the whole nursing staff in the marble hall\u2014seventy-one of us. It seemed odd to go to a formal dinner in cap and apron!<\/p>\n<p>You know how undemonstrative the British Tommies are\u2014I made a point of asking a lot of them how they liked their stockings, just to see what they would answer. Their almost universal reply was, “It’s all <em>right<\/em>, Sister,” which is the highest praise they are capable of giving. No. 20, the boy I told you of, was writing in my book, and I found that he had put only a few conventional lines, dates, etc. I happened to know that he had been sixteen weeks without a bath, until, during the retreat from Mons, he and some others managed to get baths in a horse-trough; also that after wearing one shirt almost the same number of weeks he got a woman’s blouse, which he wore until he was wounded. So I made him put a postscript and write those things in. My book is going to be a treasure, with sketches, and whenever possible, a photograph taken by me of each man along with what he has written. Many nurses have books, but no one will have the photographs but me!<\/p>\n<p>I will keep on trying to get the men’s impressions for you, in driblets. Am so glad you are coming on the 23d\u2014don’t put it off again!<\/p>\n<p><em>Read, and download for free from the NLM\u2019s Digital Collections, the complete book <\/em><a title=\"NLM's Digital Collections\" href=\"http:\/\/resource.nlm.nih.gov\/01110240R\">In the Soldier\u2019s Service: War Experiences of Mary Dexter: England, Belgium, France<\/a><em>, edited by her mother Emily Loud Sanford and published in 1918.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>This is one of a series of occasional posts highlighting collections that document medical activities during the <a href=\"http:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/category\/series\/the-great-war\/\">Great War<\/a>, which lasted from August 1914 to November 1918. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/jeffrey-s-reznick.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"551\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2013\/07\/02\/the-president-is-somewhat-restless-reenacting-the-summer-of-1881-and-the-days-following-the-assassination-of-president-james-a-garfield\/jeffrey-s-reznick\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/jeffrey-s-reznick.jpg?fit=220%2C298&ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"220,298\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":""}\" data-image-title=\"Jeffrey S. Reznick\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/jeffrey-s-reznick.jpg?fit=220%2C298&ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/jeffrey-s-reznick.jpg?fit=220%2C298&ssl=1\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-551\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/jeffrey-s-reznick.jpg?resize=77%2C105\" alt=\"Portrait of Jeffrey S. Reznick in the HMD Reading Room\" width=\"77\" height=\"105\" \/><\/a>Jeffrey S. Reznick, PhD, is Chief of the History of Medicine Division at the National Library of Medicine.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>December 27, 1914: “Yesterday\u2014Boxing Day\u2014there was a Christmas dinner in the evening for the whole nursing staff in the marble hall\u2014seventy-one of us.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19605840,"featured_media":5684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Christmas in Wartime: a formal dinner in cap and apron\u2014Holiday letter from an American hospital volunteer in England http:\/\/wp.me\/p3xcDk-1tk","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12763,347145303,2347,1269102],"tags":[15607,38746,50991,53547557,7193,91365,110820],"class_list":["post-5662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-collections","category-rare-books-journals","category-series","category-the-great-war","tag-christmas","tag-hospitals","tag-letter","tag-mary-dexter","tag-nursing","tag-red-cross","tag-world-war-i"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/christmas-dinner_feature.png?fit=932%2C363&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3xcDk-1tk","jetpack-related-posts":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19605840"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5662"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18308,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5662\/revisions\/18308"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} |