Do I need to add anything? 

Imagine you are on your Grand Tour of Europe in 1914. La Dee Da, life is wonderful. Until it isn't.  Uh oh! Imagine, overnight, war breaks out. No phones, no airplanes, no ATM's, no credit cards, most trans-Atlantic ships have ceased operations, and the ones that are leaving - are leaving from England.

There you are in Florence, Italy with 150,000 lire. YOU! The daughter/son of a robber-baron (ooops sorry! Philanthropist) with positively scads of money back home in reliable J.P. Morgan & Co. But your letter of credit is worthless without a bank - and all the London banks are closed. Why does this matter? Because to exchange money and to transact almost any financial matter in 1914 required it to pass through London Banks. You can't get your money, and no-one can send you any.

Click "Read More" to see Daisy in 1914 and learn more about how stranded Americans got home!

Nothing is more fun than digging around the Internet and finding a research gem! This week there have been plenty. Today's find comes from the National Archives, a virtual treasure trove of fun. I was looking for footage of Nancy, Luneville and Vitrimont during World War I. Well I found it! And in a search for General DeBuyer I also found Daisy and Herbert Hoover visiting the Citroen Munitions Plant. She was referred to as Madame La General. 

​So I found what I didn't know I was looking for ... film of Daisy! It's silent, so don't fiddle with your volume. It starts with an overview of the lunch break, then pans to show the VIP table of visitors at about 1:10. 

Daisy worked for 3 organizations in 1918 to benefit children and refugees.

​Specifically for Prevenatoriums in Luneville and Nancy. In France these were primarily setup for the orphans or children exposed to tuberculosis considered the "white death" at the time. 

In 1919, Daisy and Ethel Mary Crocker helped organize Postes de Secours in 18 villages around Moislains, Arrondissement de Péronne, Somme, Hauts-de-France.  They also founded and endowed a pouponierre (rough transaltion - childrens nursery/orphanage).

​Most of the Somme was occupied and devastated during the war, 1914 - 1918. These four years were even spoken of at times as “the crucifixion of Picardy”. Albert, Péronne and Montdidier were reduced to a pile of rubble. 28,000 hectares of land and 381 villages were included in the red zone, a zone that was considered to be uninhabitable, but as the villagers returned, provisional housing usually in the form of wooden or corrugated iron huts, quickly began to be built. The area was in great need at the end of the war. 

Learn more about the need and their work by clicking "Read More"

Today we have the Chunnel making London to Paris travel direct and dependable. But in the early 1900's, the distance, currents and trains all created a difficult journey. Just how difficult? Read this first-hand account.

​"The comparatively short journey (modern editors note: 7 - 10 hours) between one and the other of the great European capitals is one which has demanded almost all the resources of modern science to overcome the natural drawbacks attending its peculiar features. Paris is, by rough calculation, about 260 miles from London which distance must be covered by the voyager in three stages.

• First, the railway journey to the Channel,
• then the Crossing thereof, and finally,
• another railway journey to destination.

The Channel is a notoriously fickle expanse of water, its calmness or commotion ...​