About Joan

This is Joan’s engagement photo from early 1943 when she was 20 years old. She married Robert “Bob” Thornton Morrison, who was a graduate student in organic chemistry at the University of Chicago. They married on June 19, 1943 and graduated from the U of C in 1944, she with a B.A. and he with a Ph.D.

Home Front Girl was written by JOAN WEHLEN MORRISON from 1937-1943.  Joan (1922–2010) grew up in Chicago and attended the University of Chicago before moving to New York and, later, New Jersey. She was adjunct professor of history at the New School for Social Research.  An oral historian, she published two books, one on American immigrants and the other on the 1960s. Of course, when Joan was writing her journal, she never imagined it would one day be published.  In a way, this book is Joan’s own oral history, unearthed decades after having been composed.