Mary Virginia Harris

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Mary Virginia Harris
Born
Mary Virginia Harris

1911
Died2004
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater
Penn Museum excavations at Hasanlu
Tepe

Mary Virginia Harris (1911-2004) was an American veteran of

Pearl Harbor.[1] Harris wrote the manual for WAVES, called Guide Right (1944). Later in her career, she managed materials and records from the University of Pennsylvania’s excavations at the archaeological site of Hasanlu Tepe, in Iran.[2]

Career

After graduating with a master's degree from the University of Chicago in 1937, Harris became dean of the Maryland College for Women and Pine Manor Junior College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.[3] In 1942, Harris became one of the first American women to volunteer for active duty in the U.S. Navy, as a member of the United States Naval Reserve (Women’s Reserve), more commonly known as WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service). Harris wrote the training manual for WAVES, entitled, Guide Right, in 1944, and remained on active reserve until 1965.[4] She later became a volunteer archivist at the Penn Museum involved in the Hasanlu expeditions to Iran.

Military service

Mary Virginia Harris was among the first women to commission in the

Penn Museum notes that “as a member of the Events committee of the United Nations Council, Lt. Commander Mary Virginia Harris, U.S.N.R. helped plan the atomic bomb discussion Thursday night at the Bellevue Stratford.”[4] Though the United Nations was not founded until after the war, this reference may have been to a 1943 precursor conference recorded by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.[9] Harris remained in the Naval Reserve after the war, retiring at the rank of Lieutenant Commander in 1965.[5]

Volunteer work

Mary Virginia Harris's background in education and her extensive travels led her to a post-war career as a volunteer at the

Penn Museum, where she worked from 1962 to 1997. At the Penn Museum, she served as an honorary member of the Women's Committee, helped to establish the museum’s Volunteer Guide program,[10] and acted as registrar and later archivist of the University of Pennsylvania’s excavations at Iron Age Hasanlu, Iran, directed by archaeologist Robert H. Dyson, Jr. As an avid gardener who lectured for the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, she published an analysis of the botanical landscape of Hasanlu, with particular attention to its wildflowers.[11]

References

  1. ^ The National WWII Museum (2012-07-30). "WAVES Break Through". The National WWII Museum Blog. Retrieved 2020-05-01.
  2. ^ "Expedition Magazine - Penn Museum". www.penn.museum. Retrieved 2020-03-26.
  3. ^ Internet Archive (1993). "Mary Virginia Harris". archive.org. Retrieved March 26, 2020.
  4. ^ a b Penn Museum (1993-03-08), Mary Virginia Harris, retrieved 2020-03-26
  5. ^ a b "The University of Chicago Magazine: August 2004". magazine.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2020-03-26.
  6. ISBN 978-0-595-19216-8
    .
  7. ^ Asal, Alex (June 11, 2019). "Learning to "Be Navy"". Smith College. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
  8. ^ Harris, Mary Virginia (1944). Guide Right: A Handbook for WAVES and SPARS. New York: The MacMillan Company.
  9. ^ "Bellevue Memorabilia Collection" (PDF). The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. January 2007. Retrieved 2020-03-26.
  10. ^ "Expedition Magazine - Penn Museum". www.penn.museum. Retrieved 2020-03-27.
  11. ^ Harris, Mary Virginia (1989). "Glimpses of an Iron Age Landscape". Expedition. 31:2-3: 12–23.
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