Barbara Wieboldt Sieck

Barbara Sieck was a student from 1939 to 1942. After BMC, she graduated from National College of Education, Evanston IL. She worked as a nursery school teacher and participated in the Red Cross.

Alternative Names: Barbara Bovingdon, Barbara Ernst von Ammon

Relationships

Husband: Fellow BMC student, Derek Bovingdon

Sister: Fellow BMC student, Kathryn Wieboldt Sieck

Asheville Art Museum Collection

Writings about Barbara can be seen in digitized college bulletins on Asheville Art Museum's collection website: collection.ashevilleart.org. They can be found by searching these accession numbers:

2017.40.346 January 1943 bulletin,

"Derek Bovingdon and Barbara Sieck were married January 4, the day Derek graduated from officers’ training school. He is one of a few members of his class chosen to learn to fly the army’s Flying Fortress, and is now in training in New Mexico as a bomber pilot."

2017.40.191 February 26, 1945 bulletin,

"Item from the National Headquarters of the American Red Cross: “Barbara Bovingdon, daughter of Herbert Sieck, 740 Ardaley Road, Winnetka, Illinois, has arrived in New Guinea, for further assignment in the Southwest Pacific as an American Red Cross staff assistant. Until her Red Cross appointment, Mrs Bovingdon was nursery school teacher in Winnetka and Glencoe schools. She attended Black Mountain College and is a graduate of National College of Education in Evanston Illinois.”"

2017.40.192 March 5, 1945 bulletin,

"Barbara Sieck Bovingdon writes from the Netherlands East Indies on February 25: “It didn’t take long to be on our way to the South Pacific after we started training in Washington- two weeks of classes at the American University, then two weeks’ extension training at the USO in Baltimore, three weeks’ office work at Headquarters, and then off we went. We landed in Dutch New Guinea and spent a week there in more orientation and in getting new assignments. Now I am in the Netherland East Indies, a backward area but still further up than they usually send new girls. As yet we have had little feeling of the real war that is going on out here- more first hand information perhaps, but still not the reality of it. I did go out on a mobile Air Evacuation run and saw some of the recaptured prisoners and casualties...I have been temporarily assigned to a stationary canteen and, although I do like it, am very anxious to get my own club (still on paper as yet) as I was originally classified as a club worker. Up until now the canteen program has had much more importance on this base than the club. Our canteen, ‘The Sad Sack,; is mainly for feeding the transients, and we are open from 3:00 AM to 3:00 PM. The shifts are divided between the two of us, and we serve the standard office, juice, doughnuts, cookies and sandwiches- How far removed is our setup from the picture they gave us in Washington! Dirt floors, no running water, no screening, no modern conveniences- yet what we do is quite affective. It's going to be a most interesting experience, and I’m ever so happy to be here...”"