Julia B. French was the daughter of George J. French, the president and son of the founder of Rochester's R.T. French Company, producer of condiment and spices. After her war service and activity in Republican committee politics, Miss French married Richard T. Worrell (1897-1956), a telescope worker, about 1927, and they resided with her widowed mother at 3597 Elmwood Avenue, Brighton. Her husband was in the United States Navy in 1943, and she was later widowed. She was living in Pittsford and was a member of the Christ Episcopal Church when she died December 17, 1974.
The Rochester Women's Motor Corps was a branch of the National League for Women's Service, and was organized in April 1918. Volunteer members provided their own uniforms, automobiles, gasoline, and supplies, serving as drivers for the Red Cross and other services. They took Home Service workers on war errands, assisted the families of wounded soldiers and soldiers who died in service, met troop trains and took officers and soldiers on sightseeing tours of the city, and aided workers in "the many drives that served to remind those at home that the country was at war." The organization became affiliated with the Red Cross in September 1918, which with the gift of an additional motor truck provided by Hiram W. Sibley, "prepared the corps for its greatest emergency during the influenza epidemic" in late 1918. The Women's Motor Corps was demobilized 15 May, 1919. See World War Service Record of Rochester and Monroe County New York, III compiled and edited by Edward R. Foreman (Rochester: City of Rochester, 1930), pp. 121-134, 487- 491.
The papers of Julia B. French (1882-1974) consists of fragmentary correspondence, printed ephemera, political ribbons and buttons, newspaper articles, and four large matted photographs, along with two folders of miscellaneous photographs. The collection covers her membership in the Rochester Women's Motor Corps during 1918-1919, and her activities in women's Republican Party committees on the local and state levels during the early and middle 1920s.
There are approximately 30 pieces of printed ephemera in the collection, relating to the Women's Motor Corps and Republican committee politics. The four matted photographs depict the last field drill of the Women's Motor Corps in the spring 1919. The correspondence in the collection relates to Miss French's activity in Republican committee politics and includes letters from the leader of the Monroe County organization, James L. Hotchkiss (6), Elihu Root (1, indexed) and Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. (1, indexed).
Transferred from the George Arents Research Library, Syracuse University, November 29, 1984 and June 10, 1986.
In consultation with a curator, reproductions may be made upon request. Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from a curator. Researchers are responsible for determining any copyright questions.
[Item title, item date], Julia B. French Papers, D.192, Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester
Pope's Message of Peace
War-Debts; Democracy in Danger; Self-Disciplined Liberty or Compulsion; War Debts
1 Package -four 12" x 14" matted photographs