Vermonter donates S.S. Calvin Coolidge artifacts to Historical Society

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(Host) More than six decades ago, Vermonters of all ages joined the rest of the nation to mobilize for World War II.  Part of that effort involved collecting scrap metal to build ships and machinery. 

As VPR’s Steve Zind reports, the memories of that drive and Vermont’s role in it have been preserved by one woman who took part.

(Zind) "Uncle Sam needs your Scrap Now.  Our Boys Can’t Win with Cap Pistols." In the aftermath of Pearl Harbor the urgency of messages like that, displayed on banners and in flyers, wasn’t lost on schoolchildren like 13-year-old Jeannine Baker Dubuque.  And when the government said it needed scrap metal Dubuque and her fellow students from Grand Isle Grammar School did their part and fanned out across the town.

(Dubuque) "We all worked very, very hard to bring in all the scrap that we could.  We went in everybody’s cellars and barns and all over the place and collected scrap and brought it all to the school."

(Zind) The school collected nearly 7,000 pounds of scrap metal per student, the highest average in Vermont – and Vermont had the highest per capita collection rate in the nation.

To honor the school, Dubuque was chosen to travel with her teacher to Portsmouth, Maine, where she christened the transport ship the S.S. Calvin Coolidge.  For the occasion, she wielded a bottle encased in mesh, so the shattered glass could be saved as a souvenir.

(Dubuque) "Listen, you can hear it. (sound of broken glass)

(Zind) The bottle, now mounted in a small display case, isn’t the only thing Dubuque saved.   When she sent a note with a piece of ribbon from the christening to Grace Coolidge, it prompted a reply written in the graceful hand of the former first lady.

(Dubuque) "Dear Jeannine, thank you for your letter telling me about the launching of Vermont‘s victory ship, the S.S. Calvin Coolidge…"

(Zind) The letter.  The christening bottle.  The newspaper clippings and correspondence from grateful officials.  For 66 years, Dubuque has cherished all of these and the memories they represent to a woman who wore donated clothing to the ship christening because her family couldn’t afford to buy them.

This week, the 80-year-old Dubuque presented the items in her collection to the Vermont Historical Society.  In doing so, society executive director Mark Hudson says Dubuque is helping to reveal the human side of an historic event.

(Hudson) "It contributes to our understanding of history in a very personal way and I think that’s what this is about, is telling an individual story that’s part of this much larger thing, which is Vermont history."

(Zind)  The items Dubuque has donated to the Vermont Historical Society Museum in Montpelier are unique, but her impulse is not. 

Much of the history on display at the museum has come from the attics and closets of Vermonters like her.

For VPR News, I’m Steve Zind.

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