Beulah Hurley Waring papers

This collection consists primarily of the correspondence of Beulah Hurley Waring (1886-1988) and relates principally to her relief work after World War I in Europe and Russia under the auspices of several Friends' group. Beulah Hurley, a Quaker, attended Columbia Teachers College and taught at State Teachers College in Newark. She taught at a Friends School in Philadelphia prior to working for various relief organizations during and after World War I, especially with the child feeding program. She applied for a position to work as a nurse's aid in Chalon, France in 1917. She was sent to France in 1918 and became the head of the section to provide food and shelter for victims of the war. In 1921, she was among the first American woman to enter Russia under the American Relief Administration, though members of the AFSC (Nancy Babb, Miriam West and Murray Kenworthy) entered with her, and, indeed, Anna Haines had come in 1917. Hurley, along with Miriam West, carried the entire responsibility for relief of 200,000 starving people. The area in which she worked, Buzuluk, in the heart of the Russian steppe, was demarcated as the Quaker service area. Hurley was made Field Director in 1922. In 1922, Hurley developed typhoid fever. In March 1922, Robert Dunn, a journalist, whose writings also appear in this collection, arrived to take over publicity work. Harry and Rebecca Timbres also arrived that spring. Beulah was made field director in May, after Murray Kenworthy left to return to the States. She married Alston Waring in 1928, with whom she had children.

The correspondence begins in 1918 when Hurley headed to France to provide relief in war-torn areas, such as Sermaize. Her job consisted of assistance in providing food aid to the starving population under the direction of Friends' War Victims Relief Committee. In 1919, Hurley moved around Europe, including to Austria and Germany, where she was put in charge of equipment, now working for the American Friends Service Committee. In 1920, she made note of the Russo-Polish conflict and continued her description of her duties and a conference she attends. In 1921, she continued doing relief work in Poland, and received her papers for work to continue in Russia. In 1922, already posted in Russia, in Sorochinskoye in Buzuluk district, she kept a day book containing precise numbers of people assisted and food, medicine and transportation.