Hello,

The Bowling Green, KY Civil War Round Table meets on the 3rd Tuesday of each month (except June, July, and December).
For more information please email: BGCWRT@wku.edu

We meet at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 18th in Cherry Hall 125 on the Campus of Western Kentucky University. This is located on the hill in campus center with free parking right across the street. Our meetings are always open to the public. Members please bring a friend or two – new recruits are always welcome.

Our Program for April 2017: Woman-Power: A Brief Summary of the Contributions of American Women during the Civil War and the First World War

In 1861, women organized in ways unlike anything previously experienced in American history. Seemingly overnight, female-led axillary organizations across the Union and Confederacy sprang up in support of the war effort. Women and girls collected supplies, rolled bandages, and knitted socks. As the war progressed, charity and aid societies formed for the benefit of the poor, refugees, orphans, disabled veterans, and freedmen. Nowhere are these contributions more evident than on the pages of Harper’s Weekly.

Less than 50 years after the close of the Civil War, American women again mobilized in the face of impending war. True to the spirit of the Progressive era, women challenged societal norms and gender barriers. By the Unites States’ entrance into the Great War, millions of women had entered the workforce for the first time. Inspired by champions for equal rights such as Harriet Stanton Blatch and President Theodore Roosevelt women worked as laborers, police officers, and ambulance drivers. Massive propaganda campaigns emboldened women to work in factories, serve in the military, ration food, and donate hard earned money.

For generations, historians and scholars presented wars from a male perspective virtually ignoring the countless women who clambered to support the governments that denied them a political voice. Although scholarly investigation and general interest in women has drastically improved in recent years, most Americans are unaware that women were answering the call to duty long before “Rosie the Riveter.”

By examining 19th century wood cut illustrations and 20th century propaganda posters this program aims to prove that Victorian and Progressive Era American society recognized the changing roles of women later ignored by historians. This study also aims to determine how those depictions may have empowered and encouraged women and their struggle for equal rights.
Bio: Krista Castillo, a native of Northeastern Ohio, came to Fort Negley as the Education Manager in 2008. In 2010, she was promoted to Museum Coordinator and Site Manager. Krista earned a BA in History from Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio in 2000. In 2012, she completed a Masters in Military History at Austin Peay State University. In addition to completing internships at the William McKinley National Memorial and Museum in Canton, Ohio and at the Don F. Pratt Museum at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, Krista’s professional experience includes serving as registrar at the Customs House Museum and Cultural Center in Clarksville, Tennessee and as a receptionist at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Krista has served as president of the Nashville Civil War Roundtable since 2009 and recently began reviewing books for Civil War News. In March, she was profiled by the Emerging Civil War blog in honor of Women’s History Month. Krista resides in Clarksville with her family and six spoiled dachshunds.