Yarros, Dr. Rachael (fl. 1910-1920)
Mass Meeting for Women, All Mothers and Girls Urged to Attend. Broadside.

Chicago: Monday December 10, 1917.

Single sheet of wove paper printed on one side in a display typeface, wood type, with pencil notes on verso, the talk provided during the First World War under the auspices of the War Recreation Board, short closed tears, chips, folds, signs of handling; 9 x 6 in.

Little in the public record exists concerning Dr. Yarros, other than accounts of her campaign against sexually transmitted diseases, which she waged on a number of fronts. Dr. Yarros consulted with the U.S. Army during this period, and suggested the implementation of a number of reforms. She directed the army to eliminate the presence of sex workers near soldiers, along with access to alcoholic beverages, and suggested that men stricken with venereal diseases were still paid while recovering. Her plan resulted in a marked decline in the prevalence of these infections at the front. At home, she delivered talks aimed especially to women on the topic of "the social evil" and "sex hygiene," in which she advised mothers in the proper rearing of their children, all aimed at reducing sexually transmitted infections. According to a newspaper account of one of Dr. Yarros's talks, also given in 1917, she spoke for about an hour and a half to about 200 women. "Words were not minced, and the vernacular applied where it fitted. Probably not many of the women in the audience had ever heard an address so directly bearing upon prostitution and venereal diseases, and certainly but few had ever heard an address that was so plainly spoken." Yarros was a Russian immigrant to the U.S. but as of writing, no definite information regarding her birth, education or death has come to hand.

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