FOIAWEAR — CHARLOTTE GOWER CHAPMAN / Milocca Anthropologist Tee

FOIAWEAR / ARCHIVE SERIES 027

Charlotte Gower Chapman (1902–1982) was born and raised in Kankakee, Illinois, and fell early for languages and history. After Smith College she went to the University of Chicago, where she was one of only two women to earn a degree from the Department of Sociology and Anthropology; her dissertation studied Chicago's Sicilian immigrant community and its religion and culture during Prohibition. From 1926 she spent two years on prehistoric digs in France as Director of the American School of Prehistoric Research for Yale University — then, from 1928 to 1930, travelled across Sicily and lived among peasants in Milocca, a remote mountain village near Palermo. The result was Milocca: A Sicilian Village, a detailed account of daily life, tradition and mysticism.

The artwork is a stylised tribute — the village, the field notebook and the magnifying glass of the anthropologist who counted the details. It is not a portrait.

In 1938 she took the job most people would have refused — head of the Anthropology Department and Dean of Women at Lingnan University in Hong Kong, with Japanese invasion looming. When Imperial forces took Hong Kong in December 1941 she was interned with other American citizens and repatriated in 1942. Back in Chicago, a 40-year-old academic who had never served in uniform applied to the Marine Corps. The president of the University of Chicago called her “an exceptionally capable and brilliant woman” in his recommendation; the Corps agreed, and she was commissioned a Captain in 1943 — only the second female officer in the Marine Corps. She built and ran recruitment and training for the Women's Reserve and was promoted to Major. In May 1944 General William Donovan wrote to Marine Headquarters asking for Major Gower Chapman, and her Chinese, French and Italian took her to the OSS as a Far Eastern intelligence analyst for the rest of the war. She became one of the first CIA officers in 1947, retired in 1964, returned to teaching, and retired from the Marine Corps Reserves as a Lieutenant Colonel.

Offered in twelve garment colours: the artwork carries light typography on dark garments (Black, Navy, Graphite, Pepper, Espresso, Sapphire) and dark typography on light garments (Moss, Chambray, Mustard, Butter, Light Green, White).

The QR code on the front opens the CIA's article on Charlotte Gower Chapman, the source for everything above: https://www.cia.gov/stories/story/charlotte-gower-chapman/

Garment: Comfort Colors 1717 garment-dyed t-shirt. Heavyweight 6.1 oz/yd² (206.8 g/m²), 100% ring-spun US cotton, pre-shrunk, relaxed fit, double-needle stitched with no side seams and a sewn-in label. Sizes S–4XL. Printed on the front at 300 DPI; plain back. The main artwork prints at 10 × 10 in and the QR at 1.8 × 1.8 in.

Care: machine wash cold, inside out, with like colours. Tumble dry low. Do not iron directly on the printed area.

FOIAWEAR is an independent brand and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the Central Intelligence Agency or the United States government.