Faustine Dennis

Faustine Dennis (June 7, 1888 – May 8, 1975) was an American librarian who worked at the Library of Congress from 1921 to 1950. She volunteered for service during World War I and World War II. She was president of the Women's Overseas Service League from 1933 to 1935, and was state regent of the Daughters of the American Revolution for the District of Columbia in the 1950s.

Faustine Dennis
A young white woman in a military-style unifrom
Faustine Dennis in uniform as a Red Cross worker in World War I, from the Library of Congress
BornJune 7, 1888
Ithaca, New York
DiedMay 8, 1975 (age 86)
Cranford, New Jersey
Occupation(s)Librarian, clubwoman

Early life and education

Dennis was born in Ithaca, New York, the daughter of Louis Monroe Dennis and Minnie Clark Dennis. Her father taught chemistry at Cornell University.[1] She graduated from Vassar College in 1909; she also attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Parsons School of Fine and Applied Arts in New York.[2][3] After college, she was an interior decorator.[4]

Career

Library of Congress

Dennis was a librarian who worked at the Library of Congress from 1921 to 1950. She was appointed curator of the Microfilm Reading Room in 1942.[5] She retired in 1955.[3]

Military support

Dennis served for sixteen months with the American Red Cross in France and Germany during and after World War I.[2][6] She was national legislative chair of the Women's Overseas Service League (WOSL) from 1929 to 1933, and national president of the WOSL from 1933 to 1935.[7] She was WOSL's legislative chair again in the 1940s.[8] She worked for women's access to services including veterans' hospitals and care homes.[9][10] In related work, she was a unit president and national defense committee chair of the District of Columbia's American Legion Auxiliary.[11][12]

During World War II, Dennis was a leader of the casualty shock-feeding teams of the Red Cross Canteen Corps in the District of Columbia, volunteers trained to organize emergency services such as food relief and first aid stations, in a disaster or attack.[13] She was the first woman to be appointed a section chair of the USO.[3]

Daughters of the American Revolution

Dennis was state regent of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) in the District of Columbia, and national treasurer of the DAR.[2] In 1955, the DAR dedicated "Dennis Grove", a stand of over 200 peach and plum trees at Tamassee, to honor Dennis.[14]

Publications
  • "Microfilm Activities" (1944)[15]
  • "American Council of Learned Societies, British Manuscripts Project" (1950)[16]
  • "Welcome to the Nation's Capital" (1955)[17]

Personal life

Dennis died in 1975, at the age of 86, at a nursing home in Cranford, New Jersey.[3]

References
  1. "Prof. Louis M. Dennis of Cornell, 73, Dead; Retired in 1933 After Serving as Head of Department of Chemistry for 30 Years". The New York Times. 1936-12-10. Retrieved 2023-07-30.
  2. "Miss Faustine Dennis". The Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine. 90 (7): 635. July 1956 – via Internet Archive.
  3. "Faustine Dennis, at Age 86; Served Red Cross in two wars/Pat Garry". The Record. 1975-05-09. p. 10. Retrieved 2023-07-30 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. "Will Be Guest". Arizona Daily Star. 1934-03-04. p. 17. Retrieved 2023-07-30 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. Adler, Melissa (2017-04-03). Cruising the Library: Perversities in the Organization of Knowledge. Fordham Univ Press. ISBN 978-0-8232-7637-0.
  6. "Overseas Women--One has D.S.M.--Three in Siberia". Evening World-Herald. 1926-06-28. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-07-30 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. "Women to Honor Overseas Service League Leader; Faustine Dennis, National President, to Arrive on Sunday". The Minneapolis Star. 1934-02-14. p. 5. Retrieved 2023-07-30 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. United States Congress House Committee on Military Affairs (1942). Hearings. p. 55.
  9. Zeiger, Susan (2019-05-15). In Uncle Sam's Service: Women Workers with the American Expeditionary Force, 1917-1919. Cornell University Press. p. 170. ISBN 978-1-5017-4495-2.
  10. Finkelstein, Allison S. (2021-08-10). Forgotten Veterans, Invisible Memorials: How American Women Commemorated the Great War, 1917–1945. University of Alabama Press. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-8173-2101-7.
  11. "Legion Auxiliary Works for Prize". Evening Star. 1937-06-20. p. 34. Retrieved 2023-07-30 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. "Women Will Ask Army of 165,000; Legion Auxiliary Defense Group to Make Appeal to Congress". Evening Star. 1936-02-16. p. 37. Retrieved 2023-07-29 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. Smith, Betty (1943-07-18). "Women of Casualty Shock-Feeding Teams did Not Miss One Air-Raid Mobilization". Evening Star. p. 48. Retrieved 2023-07-30 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. Winslow, Mabel E. (April 1956). "Tamassee Blue and Gold". The Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine. 90 (4): 406, 472 – via Internet Archive.
  15. Dennis, Faustine (1944). "Microfilm Activities". Quarterly Journal of Current Acquisitions. 1 (3): 70–73. ISSN 0090-0095.
  16. Dennis, Faustine. "American Council of Learned Societies, British Manuscripts Project" American Documentation 1950;1(3):130.
  17. Dennis, Faustine (April 1955). "Welcome to the Nation's Capital". The Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine. 89 (4): 381 – via Internet Archive.
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