2008.21.20

This black and white glossy photograph (with a small white border) was taken by Corwin Hansen, and has his green stamp on the back; also marked in pencil is "7-19-47:48." The photo shows a female patient at Letterman General Hospital ("1st Lt. Frances H. Hayes, WAC, San Francisco, Cal.") seated in a wheel chair. She's wearing a robe that is covered with the branch patches of various military groups (for example: "Airborne," "Allied Airborne," "Guam," and graphic symbols such as eagles, parachutes, a bear, cactus, wings, stars, a seahorse, etc.) On her feet are fuzzy slippers. She looks up and smiles at two European style folk dancers, the woman ("June Meuser") wears dark hosiery and sandals, holds her knee-length dark skirt up with her right hand, which shows her lace trimmed petticoat. She also has on a crisp, white apron. She also wears a vest, or an emboidered panel over her white eyelet embroidery blouse. There's a large oval brooch at her neck. The cap on her head has long satin ribbon streamers in the front. The male folk dancer ("Henry Hirvo") is holding her left hand. He wears light colored satin trousers decorated with two piped arrows motifs. He wears a vest--with a triple row of buttons--that is trimmed with a floral patterned braid at the waist, around the pocket flaps and up the center closure. Behind the wheelchair, with her left arm casually draped over the back of the chair, stands the Red Cross worker ("Peg Russell"--Margaret Russell) in uniform. A portion of a hospital bed, and the curtains used to partition off "rooms" in the hospital are also visible.

Margaret Russell, who completed her Red Cross training, was stationed at Letterman General Hospital in the Persidio in San Francisco. Photographs in this collection shoow her at work, and also show her husband-to-be, Walter Haneberg, whom she met while he was a patient at the hospital.

Used: publicity | United States army | American Red Cross