Monthly Archives: September 2019

Introducing Lizzie

woman holding a WWI letter.

Elizabeth Hobbs ’21 reading a letter from H.J.C. Peirs.

Today we highlight team member Lizzie Hobbs ’21 who has been a Peirs research assistant for over a year.  She is working toward a History Major and Art History Minor.  In addition to classes, and assisting in the Department of Civil War Era Studies office, and guiding tours for the Office of Admissions, and serving as a Peer Learning Associate for a First Year Seminar; Lizzie has been researching the men of the 8th Battalion.  She is compiling a database of names, ranks, hometowns, experiences, and casualties of the men under Jack’s command.  We believe that knowing more about the individual soldiers in his battalion will tell us more about the entirety of the war experience and potentially, more about Jack.

Lizzie hails from Scarborough, Maine, but lived in Belgium for two years before matriculating at Gettysburg College.  She will have a chance to return to the “battleground of Europe” this summer when she travels with the rest of #TeamPeirs to France and Belgium in May.  Before then she will play a key role in the logistical planning of the trip.

Lizzie was first introduced to The First World War Letters of H.J.C. Peirs in her First-Year Seminar, which she took with Professor Isherwood.  In Through the War-drobe, Isherwood’s students explore the writings of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the other Inklings, many of whom served in the First World War and brought its influences into their writing.  She also read Jack’s letters as primary source material in a class on the Great War.  Lizzie says that she has been most interested in studying about the First World War through the lives of the men who fought it.  She still has plenty of time to make plans for after graduation, but intends to do something involving historical research.