Podcast Episode 50
Annie Wittenmyer of the WCTU
with Dr. Jennifer Woodruff Tait & host Nick Walters
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In an age of war, suffering, and limited opportunities for women, Annie Wittenmyer turned Christian conviction into one of the most effective reform careers of the nineteenth century.
Episode 50 of This Week in Christian History examines how lived Christian conviction shaped one of the most influential reform careers of the nineteenth century through the life and work of Annie Wittenmyer. Wittenmyer’s story illustrates how faith, organization, and moral purpose converged to address human suffering during and after the American Civil War, leaving a lasting imprint on American social reform.
This episode features an interview with Nick Walters, founder of the Center for Christian History at Mississippi College, followed by a Deep Dive with subject matter expert Jennifer Woodruff Tait of the Christian History Institute. Tait is a senior editor of Christian History magazine and a respected historian of evangelicalism whose work focuses on Christian reform movements, women’s leadership, and the practical outworking of belief in public life. Her scholarship provides essential context for understanding how figures like Annie Wittenmyer understood their work as a Christian calling rather than merely social activism.
The Deep Dive explores Annie Wittenmyer’s emergence as a national leader during the Civil War, when she served as a sanitary agent responsible for improving conditions in Union hospitals and military camps. Motivated by evangelical faith and a strong sense of moral duty, Wittenmyer identified systemic failures in hospital care, particularly in nutrition and hygiene. Her advocacy led to the creation of special diet kitchens that provided wounded and sick soldiers with food appropriate to their medical needs, significantly improving recovery rates. This work required not only compassion, but logistical expertise, administrative authority, and the ability to navigate male-dominated military structures.
Wittenmyer’s reform efforts did not end with the war. The Deep Dive examines her pivotal role in organizing Soldiers’ Orphans Homes in Iowa, addressing the long-term consequences of the conflict on families and children. These institutions reflected her belief that Christian responsibility extended beyond emergency relief to sustained care and moral formation. Her work helped shape early models of child welfare in the United States and demonstrated how Christian women exercised public leadership through voluntary associations long before gaining formal political power.
The episode also explores Wittenmyer’s postwar influence as the first national president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. In this role, she helped define the organization’s early mission, emphasizing moral reform, Christian discipleship, and disciplined organization. Under her leadership, the WCTU became a training ground for female leadership and a major force in American Protestant reform culture. The Deep Dive places Wittenmyer within a broader evangelical reform tradition that linked personal faith with social responsibility and viewed reform as a form of Christian witness.
In addition to the interview and Deep Dive, Episode 50 includes historical highlights from the same week in Christian history. One highlight reflects on the final sermon preached by John Calvin, offering insight into the closing chapter of a life that profoundly shaped Reformed theology, pastoral ministry, and Protestant thought across Europe and beyond. Another highlight marks the ratification of the Westminster Confession of Faith, a defining doctrinal statement that articulated core Reformed beliefs and continues to influence churches, confessions, and theological education around the world.
This Week in Christian History is produced by the Center for Christian History at Mississippi College and brings together scholarly insight, historical storytelling, and careful interpretation to explore how Christianity has shaped people, institutions, and cultures across the centuries. Episode 50 invites listeners to consider how Christian faith informed practical action in moments of crisis and reform, and how figures like Annie Wittenmyer modeled a faith that was both deeply personal and publicly engaged.
