First Lieutenant bar insignia worn by Lt. Louise Lomax

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

During World War II, Louise Lomax joined the Army Nurse Corps as a 2nd Lieutenant in March 1943 with the help of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses and trained as a psychiatric nurse at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C. By September 1943 she was stationed at Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama, home of the Tuskegee Airmen. Lomax remained at Tuskegee during the war, where she was eventually promoted to 1st Lieutenant. For her war service she was awarded a World War II Victory Medal and an American Campaign Medal. While the term "Tuskegee Airmen" is often attributed to the famed African American pilots who trained at Tuskegee, the Tuskegee Airmen also included more than 10,000 Black men and women who supported the pilots, including nurses, civilian flight instructors, mechanics, cooks, supply personnel, and more. A First Lieutenant bar military insignia pin worn by Lt. Louise Lomax as part of Army Nurse Corps uniform. The insignia pin is a rectangular sterling silver bar with an attached pin back.

Catalog date

ca. 1946

Recorded places

Tuskegee, Macon County, Alabama, United States, North and Central America

Recorded subjects

African American; Medicine; Military; Nursing; Segregation; U.S. History, 1933-1945; U.S. History, 1945-1953; Women

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