2017 is looking to be, “the biggest year ever” for a Churchville woman many around the area have come to know and love as the “dollhouse lady.” Teresa Wood of History Houses says this year she has developed two new programs for children and their families focusing on the centennial of two significant historical events – the entry of the United States into WWI, and granting women the right to vote in New York State.
Wood says her July schedule is packed with bookings for her new suffragette program, and libraries, nursing homes and churches locally and around the state are taking great interest in the “Meet the Donut Girls From WWI” program which features the story of courageous young women who traveled to the front lines in France during WWI with the Salvation Army to serve soldiers fighting in the trenches.
“I like to have a theme for my summer programs,” Wood says, and explains that this year’s offerings revolve around a “building a better world theme.”
1917 was a pivotal point in U.S. history, she observes. “The U.S. was transformed internally by the entrance into the war,” she says. Women stepped out of the home and into blue-collar jobs and, not surprisingly, the suffragette movement also culminated around the same time.
Wood’s historical story-telling programs feature dollhouses and related American Girl dolls, and engage all members of the family in historically accurate presentations featuring various periods of life in America from 1764-1974. Wood has eleven dollhouses (including an 1830 Erie Canal cargo boat) and many dolls which help her bring history – often times overlooked history – to life.
Wood meticulously researches her programs to assure they are historically accurate. “Schools and parents don’t have the time to convey many of the facts that make history interesting,” she says.
Her research for the WWI Donut Girls program is a case in point. Based on the experiences of the first real Donut Girls – Helen Purviance and Margaret Sheldon – Wood has created a program that will help participants understand why the U.S. entered the war, and why the work of the Donut Girls was so important.
Wood notes it was more than just the bombing of the Lusitania that brought the U.S. into the conflict, and the program features some of the more “wild” and little known reasons why our country entered the war.
The Donut Girls were part of a group of young women sent by the Salvation Army to assist soldiers fighting in the trenches. “They provided spiritual comfort and help in anyway they could,” Wood explains. That help evolved into the making of thousands of donuts (and other baked goods) every day to distribute to the troops. It also led to the creation of national donut day here in the U.S.
Wood’s program features Helen and Margaret dolls – who wear Salvation Army uniforms and Donut Girl dresses – their camp – complete with a tent, a stove and baking supplies, as well as a miniature “canteen” typical of those the Donut Girls used for making their donuts and serving them to soldiers.
“This is the stuff we have to tell, it is amazing to me,” Wood says of the little-known work of the Donut Girls and other women from many groups including the Red Cross and YMCA who were active in the war effort.
Wood says she is booked at the Newstead Library in Erie County and the Seymour Library in Brockport for Donut Girl programs in April. The Donut Girl and Suffragette programs will continue throughout 2017.
For more information about Wood and her History House programs, visit her website at historyhouses.webs.com.
