From Citizens to Enemy Aliens: Oregon Women, Marriage, and the Surveillance State during the First World War

Abstract

Between the days of June 17 and June 26, 1918, Oregon government officials under U.S. Presidential Proclamation collected family and work history information, photographs, and finger prints of 1,484 women from across the state of Oregon. These women were considered “enemy aliens” because they had emigrated from Germany, or, as was the case for 394 of these women, because they married German men thereby forfeiting their U.S. Citizenship. In this article, historian Kimberly Jensen brings to life this collection of Female Enemy Alien Registration records. During a time when a woman's citizenship relied on that of her husband's, Jensen reveals the expressions of life, character, and subtle forms of protest among the registration records of file boxes in the Oregon Historical Society Research Library collections.