Group of 15 photo postcards showing the Independent Patriotic Women's Division

1916. 15 black and white photo postcards. WITH: A small medallion from the Woman's Section of the Movement for National Preparedness attached to a red, white, and blue ribbon. 3 3/8 x 5 3/8 inches. Fine. 15 black and white photo postcards. WITH: A small medallion from the Woman's Section of the Movement for National Preparedness attached to a red, white, and blue ribbon. 3 3/8 x 5 3/8 inches. A group of photo postcards showing a gathering of the Independent Patriotic Women's Division, which formed as part of the large national civic "preparedness" movement that arose in the early years of World War I. Images include a view of the division's tents pitched in a field, numerous group shots of the women in uniform, marching, engaged in calesthenics, standing at attention, etc. Accompanying the photos is a small medalion- attached to a red, white, and blue ribbon- lettered on one side "The Woman's Section of the Movement for National Preparedness."

A massive Citizens Preparedness Parade which took place on May 13, 1916 in New York, just over a year after the sinking of the Lusitania, in which a body of citizens larger than the U.S. Army marched from City Hall to Central Park. This included several thousand women with various organizations, including the Independent Patriotic Women's Division, who brought up the rear, with Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt as marshal.