the letters: contents and summaries

This letter written by Breckinridge to Miss Carr is the beginning of her commitment to the American Committee for Devastated France. She discusses her decision to not write the book on Child Welfare for the Public Health Nursing Serves. She has just signed the contract with the American Committee for Devastated France and wants to be able to dedicate herself to the cause and does not know how much it will entail.

Breckinridge begins this letter by writing to her mother of recent activities in her unit, such as taking patients to the American Woman's Hospital, having tea with doctors and nurses, and recovering from her own illnesses. She also describes the landscape of surrounding towns, painting a detailed picture of rural life in the French countryside. As she mentions those she has come into contact with, Breckenridge conveys the necessity of the American Committee and their supplies for the nearby devastated villages. She ends the letter with discussing social acquaintances and outings, acknowledging the family updates she has received, and noting specific contemporary American authors whose work she enjoys. Overall, this letter provides insight into Breckenridge's personal life as well as her daily life as an American nurse in post-war France.

This letter, which Breckinridge wrote to her mother, primarily talks about everything that has happened over the course of the past week. Breckinridge talks about having a variety of visitors who came over specifically to see the nursing-related work that she and her committee have been doing; she also speaks highly of her committee, saying that their strengths effectively lie in their diversity. By this point, it is clear that she and her other nurses are being highly regarded for their work in France. Breckinridge also speaks about her visit to the Compiégne military hospital and recounts a tragic event that occurred during her time there—while she was at the hospital, a nineteen-year-old boy accidentally picked up a grenade that blew the three middle fingers on his hand completely off. She speaks of his bravery, his parents' tears, and the local peasants who advised his parents to not cry until he was actually dead. (It is unclear whether the boy was actually killed.) In the second part of the letter, Breckinridge talks about the Duvauchelle family, a family who is very poor and whose child had previously died of pneumonia. She describes the acts of charity she has provided for them in order to help get their family back on its feet. Finally, Breckinridge ends the letter with a description of the surroundings in her room, including a strikingly poetic description of the fact that she has spring flowers on her desk that sit in an exploded bombshell. Overall, this letter serves to inform about the importance of Breckinridge's work while also specifically emphasizing the honors she and her colleagues have lately been receiving.

Breckinridge has been in Paris visiting her sister Lees and Lees's husband Warren Dunn. To this point, Paris has been an anchor of Breckinridge's life in France, but Lees and Warren are set to depart any day to follow the latter's career in the Army. In addition to Breckinridge's social life (among a who's who of the time), we are offered a fascinating glimpse into the postwar antipathy towards Germans, especially POW labor. Abandoned equipment and spent artillery shells have become souveniers; Breckinridge offers to collect a few despite her anti-German sentiments. The children in the countryside are said to be consistently underweight, and it is of primary concern to secure and distribute calorie-dense food supplies among the undernourished population. The "goat fund" here is critical. Breckinridge happily reports that dairy goats have arrived and been sent on to their new families, but more fundraising will be needed in the U.S. if more goats are to come. The letter concludes with the drama of Breckinridge's day-to-day experience; she signs off after returning from a late-night emergency call in a nearby village.

Breckinridge emphasizes the need for public health nursing in France and describes what she does on a daily basis to improve the lives of children and mothers. She indicates that various organizations are attempting to provide healthcare to the French people, but also that most efforts lack appropriate follow-up measures. The mothers are simply given supplies and the children weighed, but no instruction or follow-up ensures that the assistance is effective or long-lasting. For Breckinridge's part, she has engaged in healthcare, dental, and educational advocacy. She mentions meeting with Lady Blackwood involved in the French Red Cross and hoping to integrate each other’s ideas into their practices. The last event discussed was a French corporal throwing himself onto an exploding grenade, and the care the Breckinridge and her colleagues had to provide in the moment. She emphasizes the danger in the area due to the explosives left over from the war.

In this letter, Mary Breckinridge writes her mother about the progress her work is making, in particular the goats, a second invitation from the Chicago Political League to speak with them about Child Welfare Legislation, and the status of some of her patients. She laments how new mothers return far too quickly to physically demanding work, harming their own and their new children's health, and provides specific examples of a family in Laversine (heavily implied to be the Boulangers, though they are not mentioned by name here) and her friend Gerty Duvauchelle. She gives her own money to these women who need rest but cannot afford losing salary, or at least arranges for someone to support them while they recover.

This document sheds light on many aspects of Breckinridge's work as well as the state of post-war France and how it has impacted Breckinridge's patients. For instance, the goat money is not just used to buy goats, but also to keep them healthy with appropriate feed and to ensure that new goat kids can be provided for in the spring. This is especially important because most people suffered a poor crop due to the destruction of the landscape, and they are therefore unable to provide the feed themselves.

This late summer letters talks mostly of social happenings in the area. Though the social interactions are quite polite and standard, the shadow of the war still seems to color many of the interactions. For example, one guest, Mlle de Canasie, speaks of her time as a prisoner of war for the Germans. A large portion of the letter is also dedicated towards the curé's (the French word for 'priest') desire for a specific painting commemorating the thirty-four men of the town who died in the war. Breckenridge briefly discusses the devastating effects of the loss of so many young men on the area. She finishes the letter by discussing the health of specific local children, who are for the most part improving at an appreciable pace.

In this letter, Breckenridge writes to her sister, Lees, who is expecting a child the following Spring. She expresses her excitement and anticipation, listing items of hers, such as maternity clothing, that Lees should have. Additionally, Breckenridge conveys her hopes to come home to be with Lees later in her pregnancy, giving us insight into Breckenridge's efforts to balance her work in France with her family in America, and ultimately emphasizing her desire to care for expectant mothers.

Much of this letter describes a week-long trip through northern France and Belgium that Mary Breckinridge took with her friends Barney, Lummie, and Kit Carson. While she recounts fairly lighthearted, personal details of her group's travels, she also pays attention to the damage caused to the countryside by the war and indicates which of their travel routes were used by soldiers previously. This provides very striking imagery and historical context for the state of the area after the war, which her previous months of work have been striving to improve.

Even on vacation, she thinks of her work. In Lille, though she and her friends are enjoying their stay in a luxurious hotel, she recalls having been in the city in May on business and seeing a worse side of it then. In Belgium, she wants to see medical practice among the children because she has read about its excellence, but she has no contacts ready. So, instead, she observes them on her own, finding that many were undernourished but looked healthier than those she interacts with in France. She closes the letter by providing updates on her latest accomplishments: she has recently been working on a pamphlet to get Americans to finance work in France until the French have recovered enough to take it over themselves, and she mentions the arrival of a few new nurses. Since this comes toward the end of her 1919 set of letters, it gives a good sense of the progress she has made since her initial efforts, and a layout of the plans she will need to see through to ensure continued success.

This short letter, written to her mother, is one of the last that Breckenridge wrote in 1919, and ends the year on a rather cheerful note. In the letter, she details preparations for Christmas in France including the toys they have gathered to distribute to the local children and church preparations. She goes on to talk about various guests to Vic, her journey to Bordeaux to acquire a very in-demand typewriter for the Red Cross, and her bribing of a porter on the train ride home. In closing, she briefly discusses the funds received from supporters in the US for her work.