“You Have No Idea What It’s Like Over Here” Photos & Letters from Brattleboro WW1 Nurse Marion McCune Rice

Multimedia Exhibit Features Marion and Other Rice Family Audio Stories

World War I volunteer nurse Marion McCune Rice’s moving photographs and letters will be on exhibit July 2 to September 1 at 118 Elliot Street Gallery in Brattleboro. Several members of Nurse Marion’s family will be present to discuss the Rice family’s legacy on the town during an opening reception during Gallery Walk Friday, July 2 from 5 to 8 pm at 118 Elliot, 118 Elliot Street, Brattleboro, Vermont 05301. Fixed gallery hours are Fridays 3 pm to 6 pm and Saturdays and Sundays noon to 3 pm..

The exhibit is part of a summer of events cosponsored by the Brattleboro Words Trail and the Brattleboro Historical Society to help acquaint people with the Trail — self-guided audio tours of places and the people associated with them that reflect the significant historical and literary achievements of the Downtown and surrounding area. People can download the Trail app at www.BrattleboroWords.org. 

The Rice family, whose creative, community-minded lives and spirits helped shape the identity of Brattleboro as the special place it is today, lived on Chestnut Hill and worked at the American Building on Main Street in Brattleboro. Several Nurse Marion descendants helped produce audio stories for these spots on the Trail’s Downtown Tour. Nurse Marion, her brother – longtime Brattleboro Reformer publisher/editor Howard C. Rice, his wife Amy (to whom Nurse Marion’s letters are addressed), Stephen Daye Press publishers John S. and Marion (Rice) Hooper, and Howard C. Rice, Jr., a Rudyard Kipling scholar, all lived on Chestnut Hill. 

Steve Hooper wrote and narrated Nurse Marion’s story and his daughter, Althaea Carroll, performed the voice of her great, great Aunt. Steve’s wife, Jackie Hooper, wrote and narrated the Trail story ‘The Rice Family of Chestnut Hill.’ Both audio stories were produced by Donna Blackney.

The Trail pegs other Rice / Hooper family stories to the American Building on Main Street where the Brattleboro Reformer and Stephen Daye Press were first located. Steve’s brother John Hooper narrates the Rice family American Building stories which were produced by Sally Seymour.. Steve and John’s father, John S. Hooper, Howard C. Rice’s son in law, was also publisher/editor of the Brattleboro Reformer for more than 20 years (after the Stephen Daye press closed) until editor Norm Runnion (also featured on the Trail) took the helm in the 70s.  

Hundreds of photographs Marion McCune Rice took with a Kodak camera during her four years as a Red Cross nurse in hospitals in France are the source of this exhibit of 23 black and white images painstakingly printed from her original Kodak negatives by photographer Steve Hooper, who is Rice’s grand-nephew. Steve discovered the ‘treasure trove’ after his uncle Howard Rice, Jr. died and Steve was helping clean out the Chestnut Hill house.

“This photographic exhibit documenting four years of an American nurse in WWI is one of the most unique collections ever found in this country,” says Steve, who produced a documentary film “An American Nurse at War” based on Rice’s photographs and letters. Her story has been praised by documentary filmmaker Ken Burns and was the subject of a History Channel documentary shown nationally.

The exhibit will show primary materials including Rice’s Carte D’Identitie, her handwritten letters and original war documents. A Kodak camera similar to the one Rice used, a war medal Rice received and the uniform she wore will also be on display. 

A giant 1896 Sanborn floor map, created by MuseArts, Inc. for the Brattleboro Historical Society for a Vermont Historical Society display in Montpelier but never before exhibited in Brattleboro, and other Historical Society information will also be exhibited. The spectacular map allows visitors to ‘walk’ downtown Brattleboro, the Whetstone Brook, the Connecticut River, train connections, and see the purpose of each building and names of businesses. 

“Our Storied Landscape: Exploring the Brattleboro Words Trail”, the large hand-carved clay murals of Windham County and Downtown Brattleboro created by artist Cynthia Parker-Houghton for the Trail, are also part of the exhibit. Copies of the book “Print Town: Brattleboro’s Legacy of Words” will also be available for sale.

In August, the Summer Trail offerings will shift to a focus on the history of journalism in Brattleboro with a focus on the evolution of the Brattleboro Reformer.  A Roundtable Discussion on local journalism today will be held with a reception with journalists from a variety of local media at the August 6 Gallery Walk at 118 Elliot. For more information visit www.118Elliot.com and BrattleboroWords.org.