One of the many programs Mrs. Weeks organized was to make gas masks like the one this American volunteer is wearing. When the Germans first used poison gas as a weapon in April, 1915, the Allied troops were completely defenseless. Mrs. Weeks organized a team of women who made rudimentary gas masks out of a cotton “mattress” soaked in chemicals, with cloth ties to hold it over the soldier’s nose and mouth. It wasn’t perfect, but it would save their lives until better gas masks could be developed and manufactured in quantity. (Photo courtesy of the State Archives of North Carolina)