WMA Women of the Corps Collection

Home
United States
Wakefield, MA
WMA Women of the Corps Collection

Directions Website Contact the organization

Generations of Marine Corps Service. Since 1918 women have served as an all-volunteer force.

09/29/2026

This donation from WMA’s WOCC to Ghosts of the Battlefield Museum is in good hands!

09/01/2026

Thanks to Ghosts of the Battlefield for preserving our history and the wonderful tribute to this Marine.

Here is her interview: https://share.google/eORIGEOXrn96yIaUG

Painting donated by WMA.

https://www.facebook.com/share/1HwoYteWQh/?mibextid=wwXIfr

We Found Her: Genevieve Bowen Returns to the Wall

Sometimes preservation begins with an artifact. Other times, it begins with a face looking out from an old painting and a name waiting to be recovered.

While researching this portrait from our newly acquired Women Marines collection, we identified the woman as Genevieve Bowen of the United States Marine Corps Women’s Reserve. Genevieve enlisted in 1944, trained at Camp Lejeune, and served at Parris Island, where she helped process approximately 1,500 Marines returning from the Pacific and carried administrative responsibilities far beyond her rank of private first class.

Then the story took another turn. We discovered that the surviving painting once had a companion piece, but that second portrait is now missing.

We could not recover the original painting, but enough information survived for us to bring it back in another form. Using the surviving imagery, the original portrait, and the details of Genevieve’s uniform as our guides, we created a digital reconstruction of the missing companion. It is not the lost original, and we would never represent it as such, but online the two pieces can finally be seen together again.

That feels particularly fitting because Genevieve became an accomplished painter, sculptor, ceramicist, and metal artist after leaving the Marine Corps. She spent more than seven decades creating art, and now art has helped return her own face to history.

Tomorrow, Genevieve Bowen—her portrait, her name, and her story—will take her place on the wall of our Women’s Gallery. A missing painting may never physically return, but the woman it represented will no longer be missing.

We found her, and now others will know her name.

Thank you to the Woman’s Marine Association for the donation and to Jeannine Franz for helping us find her.

07/20/2026

FROM THE WOCC ARCHIVES: Women Marine Matters-Director of Women Marines-19 October 1970

Updates regarding uniform items, hair, and other matters.

06/18/2026

FROM THE WOCC ARCHIVES: Junk on the bunk and wall locker inspection. (1981)

Who remembers these?

03/29/2026

The National President and History Chair showcased a few uniforms from the WOCC yesterday at the National Marine Corps Museum’s Heroes Among Us event.

03/11/2026

WMA will have a few items from our Women of the Corps Collection on the table! Please stop by!

Heroes Among Us Resource Day

Join us at the National Museum of the Marine Corps for Heroes Among Us Resource Day, a special event dedicated to supporting active duty service members, veterans, and their families.

- Community organizations will be on site sharing resources on employment opportunities, mental health support, family services, veteran benefits, and law enforcement recruitment. An Inova Bloodmobile will also be on site for those interested in donating blood.

Visitors will have the opportunity to meet horses from local organizations, offering a unique chance to learn about equine assisted therapy and the role these programs play in supporting mental health and wellness.

At 11:00 AM, hear from Sergeant Major Justin D. LeHew, USMC (Ret.), Navy Cross recipient and History Flight leader, during a special presentation in Scuttlebutt Theater.

📅 Saturday, March 28
⏰ 9:00am–2:00pm
📍 Leatherneck Gallery & Museum Education Spaces
🎟 Free and open to the public

Come connect with organizations dedicated to supporting those who serve.

02/28/2026

FROM THE WOCC ARCHIVES:

February 12, 1954 message from Pearl Harbor Communications Office.

02/16/2026

H.R. 5894, signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson on Nov. 8, 1967, opened promotions for women to general and flag ranks, lifted ceilings on other ranks and removed the 2 percent ceiling on the number of women allowed on active duty.

Read more: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-upon-signing-bill-providing-equal-opportunity-promotions-for-women-the-armed

Julia Hamblet was gifted one of the pens that President Johnson used during this historic event. Eventually it was donated to WMA for preservation in the WMA Women of the Corps Collection.

Last Saturday, WMA’s History and Archives Chair, Jeannine Franz, met with Britta Granrud, Director of Collections & Curator, Military Women's Memorial, to transfer the pen as a donation to the Military Women's Memorial.

We appreciate WIMSA for helping us share this piece of history with the public!

02/15/2026

We printed the great story regarding the term “BAM” that was posted on the WMA page to go with the WWII utilities and displayed it with another WWII uniform from the WOCC at the Military Women’s Memorial yesterday in commemoration of the anniversary of the Marine Corps Women’s reserve. It appears that this Beautiful American Marine had a great sense of humour!

On 25 January 1945, the first contingent of 5 WR officers and 160 enlisted women boarded the U.S.S. Matsonia to sail from San Francisco to Hawaii. The winter service uniform with the FMF Pacific patch in the photo was worn by one of those women Marines and is preserved in the WOCC. Read more here https://npshistory.com/publications/wapa/npswapa/extContent/usmc/pcn-190-003129-00/sec15.htm

02/01/2026

What a wonderful article to promote WMA!

A photo of part of the WOCC is included in this article! It was taken at the 2024 convention in Atlanta, GA.

The Women Marines Association (WMA) is the only organization that exists for female Marines, and it needs help from her sisters in arms. All over the United

Address

401 Edgewater Place, Suite 600
Wakefield, MA
01880

Website

http://www.womenmarines.org/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when WMA Women of the Corps Collection posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.