The Monday After: Remembering the 'Military Mapping Maidens'

The new temporary traveling exhibit "Military Mapping Maidens," which features the World War II contributions of 100-year-old Hartville resident Bea Shaheen McPherson, is set up in an appropriate spot in MAPS Air Museum in Green.

The display of text, photographs and artifacts can be viewed by visitors in the museum's "Gallery of Heroes."

The "Military Maidens" exhibit, created by the Arizona-based firm Museum Pros, tells "the story of 224 young women who were recruited by the Army Map Service in 1943 to research and draw maps by hand for the Allied war effort in World War II," explains promotional material released by MAPS.

These "Mapping Maidens," selected from applicants at 22 colleges and universities throughout the country early in the 1940s and brought to a facility in Arlington, Virginia, indeed were heroes.

They charted the course for the Allied forces. They drew the path to victory in Europe, in Africa and in the Pacific. They made their mark on the homefront in India ink creating maps that helped the fighting men win World War II.

Although the exhibit is narrated largely through the personal experiences of Bea Shaheen McPherson, the MAPS information notes, its subject is quick to deflect individual attention away from her, other than to recall that her service as a "Mapping Maiden" was one of the most meaningful moments in her life.

"The exhibit may focus on me," said McPherson, one of only two "Mapping Maidens" surviving, "but I represent all 224 women."

Young women recruited on campus

McPherson was recruited for her mapmaking service as a student at Kent State University. A geography major, she was studying to become an elementary education teacher when professor Edna Eisen advised her to take a 60-hour Military Mapmaking course devised for the government by noted cartographer Edith Putnam Parker.

After successfully completing the course, McPherson and fellow students journeyed by train to Virginia, where they were housed first in temporary barracks and then in Civil Service housing while commuting to work for the Army Map Service, which now is called the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and is based in Springfield, Virginia.

"Dubbed the Military Mapping Maidens, or 3M Girls, the mapmakers ... commuted by trolley to the Rugh Building, a three-story brick structure covered in camouflage to conceal its top-secret purpose," notes MAPS promotional material for the exhibit. "There, 3M girls toiled up to 70 hours per week in mapping departments that included project drafting, foreign editing, and research.

"Over the course of the war, the 3M Girls assisted in creating more than 40,000 maps of all types. The young women who trained and served as Military Mapping Maidens made a profound impact on the map-making industry and preserved the lives of soldiers and citizens across the globe through their dedication to accurate, hand-drawn mapping."

Their work was done with contour pens in India ink, McPherson recalled in a recent interview. The maps were highly detailed.

"We had to mark the houses and the schools and the churches," she explained, "to prevent friendly fire (casualties)."

Maps depicted battlefields throughout the theaters of the war. Although their work was secretive, some signs were obvious concerning the importance of their mapmaking.

"For D-Day – Normandy," McPherson remembered, "that's when we had to work night and day."

Curator meets McPherson in Arizona

Michelle Reid, founder of Museum Pros, which designed the Military Mapping Maidens exhibit, called the work of the map-makers "critical" to the war effort. Reid said she became aware of McPherson and the work of the Mapping Maidens through McPherson's family.

"I started this company three years ago after a wonderful career in museums. I love exhibits and small museums," she said. "One of my first contract projects as Museum Pros was creating a gallery in the Phoenix Trolley Museum, to which Bea's son, Jim, is associated. Jim and I visited about the other exhibits I was working on. I had just finished an exhibit for Airbase Arizona about a Pearl Harbor survivor, and Jim asked if I would consider meeting his mom to hear her story. I was so moved by her experiences and service that we started this project. In the course of research, I also traveled to Boca Raton to meet another 3M Girl, Dina (Morelli) Kennedy."

As the project took shape through the memories of McPherson and Kennedy, the design became a "compact display that had enough capacity to tell this big story."

"Bea coached me all the way," said Reid.

During her research, Reid said she consulted with Jan Senn at Kent State University's alumni office; Judith Tyner, author; and Lisa Williams, the chief historian at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

One of the "fun contacts" Reid made through the project was Monica Wilkes of New York, an eBay seller who sold Reid a set of aerial photographs to use in the exhibit.

"She told me that they belonged to her father, Edward Hopko, who was a topographical engineer in the war," said Reid. "As she and I talked about his service and unit (942nd Engineers), I dug deeper and realized that his unit had not only drawn maps for European missions, but also sent intelligence back to the Army Map Service for maps being developed there. With that tie, I included Hopko in the main exhibit, and then created a small expansion trunk about the topographical engineers mission and support of the 3M Girls."

Display includes many artifacts

The pieces mark Museum Pros' first traveling exhibit, but its 18th overall display since the company began its work providing exhibits, story kiosks and museum renovations, as well as consultant work, for small museums.

The exhibit was delivered to MAPS Air Museum Friday. It opened Saturday with a private event that included McPherson's son, James W. McPherson III of Phoenix; her daughter, Cheryl Loden of Richmond, Virginia, who served as liaison between the family, Museum Pros and MAPS officials; and daughter Marena McPherson, who provided the exhibition with a speech Bea McPherson gave and a plaque she received at an anniversary event for National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in 2016.

Other artifacts provided by McPherson – including photos and awards – are displayed in a case in the exhibition.

"Military Mapping Maidens" formally opened to the public Sunday, and will remain on display at MAPS through most of the summer.

Mary Ann Nofel, a MAPS volunteer helping to coordinate the museum's participation as the first host of the exhibit, said part of the significance of the exhibit is that the story is tied to a local individual.

But, she added, the overall story of the Mapping Maidens, whose exhibit is displayed near the Rosie the Riveter permanent exhibit in the Gallery of Heroes, is one worth retelling.

"It's a local story, and it's important for people to know that the women were recruited at Kent State," she said. "But, it's also important for us to remember the overall role women played during World War II. Women were imbedded everywhere in the war effort."

McPherson said that so secret was her work back in the middle of the 1940s, she never thought the story of the Mapping Maidens would be widely known.

"I was proud to be with the 224 women," she said. "We were all there to help get the war over as soon as possible."

Reach Gary at gary.brown.rep@gmail.com. On Twitter: @gbrownREP.

About the exhibit

WHAT – "Military Mapping Maidens," a traveling exhibition

WHERE – Gallery of Heroes in MAPS Air Museum at 2260 International Parkway in Green.

WHEN – Through Aug. 5.

WHO – Display created by Museum Pros focusing on the WWII service of Bea Shaheen McPherson of Hartville and other Mapping Maidens.

WHY – Tells the story of 224 women who served in World War II, making battlefield maps for Allied troops.

HOW – MAPS Air Museum is open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays; 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays; and closed Mondays. Admission is $15 for adults, $13 for seniors 60 and older, $8 children 6 to 12, and free for children younger than 6 (veterans receive a $2 discount off regular admission; for World War II and Korean War veterans, admission is free). For information about MAPS, visit mapsairmuseum.org.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Hartville woman focus of MAPS Museum display of female WWII map makers