More than Meets the Eye presented by Alyssa Watrous: About The Project

This project was developed over the course of a year as an exhibition detailing Georgia Southern University's experiences with the World War II-era Women's Army Corps (WAC). This exhibit is the capstone of a lengthy Public History internship project. The first phase of this project detailed the WACs of the Eighth Air Force in the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth's collections under the guidance of Dr. Vivian Rogers-Price. In the first phase of the project, I created a virtual exhibit at the Mighty Eighth entitled WACs Among the Eighth Air Force, where I detailed the contributions of the WACs to the Eighth Air Force in World War II. From this project, I learned about the contributions of two WACs, Georgia B. Watson and Roxie A. Remley, and their local legacy as professors at Georgia Southern College (now Georgia Southern University) in Statesboro. From this knowledge, I worked with Autumn Johnson in Zach S. Henderson Library Special Collections to view the Georgia B. Watson papers and create an exhibit on the materials. Roxie Remley's materials were initially not included at Special Collections. After some work, I tracked down her materials and facilitated their donation to Special Collections, allowing me to create an exhibit detailing both former professors and their legacies. Currently, the Georgia B. Watson papers are available for research by appointment with Special Collections, and while Roxie Remley's collection is not similarly available, it will be available in the near future. The physical exhibit detailing Georgia Watson and Roxie Remley examines their lives as officers in the Women's Army Corps during World War II to their service as professors at Georgia Southern and their lasting legacies. This project is meant to highlight the remarkable women who served in the WAACs/WACs during World War II, especially those who served alongside the Eighth Air Force and the two connected to Georgia Southern University.

Georgia Southern University's Public History program was founded in 2012, where it offers a non-thesis track for students to earn a Public History concentration alongside a traditional Master's degree in History. The program was founded by Dr. Michael Scott Van Wagenen, who remains its current director. Dr. Van Wagenen has established connections in the Southeast region of Georgia where students in the program earn their degrees by interning at regional historical sites to complete a public history project. This allows students to gain valuable hands-on experience in non-traditional fields of history such as in museums and with the National Park Service. 

My name is Alyssa Watrous, and I am currently a second-year graduate student at Georgia Southern University. I am currently working on my Masters of Arts in History with a concentration in Public History. I am working on becoming a Double Eagle, meaning I earned my Bachelor of Arts in History from Georgia Southern before earning a Master's degree at Georgia Southern. While I am enrolled in the Master's program in the History Department, I work as the Educational Graduate Assistant for the Georgia Southern Museum. During the course of my capstone project, I completed half of my internship with the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force and the other half at Special Collections at the Zach S. Henderson Library. 

Here is the author's sidekick, little Miss Rosie Eleanor, who has enjoyed reading on the WAAcs/WACs herself and learning how women received military status in World War II.