Collections

This collection contains a manuscript memoir of Anthony Catalino's WWII service in the U.S. Army Field Artillery and staff work at Army hospitals and supply depots in North Africa and Italy.

This collection relates to Archie William Birchwood who served with the U.S. Coast Guard as a border patrolman and the U.S. Merchant Marines during World War II. With the Coast Guard, Birchwood searched for illegal immigrants along the Coast of Florida between Miami and Pensacola. This collection includes an oral history transcript and supporting documents including radio licenses, salary, and a merchant passport.

This collection includes letters written to Arnold Busch, a basketball coach for Calvary Methodist Church in Lakewood, Ohio, by the students he previously coached. Whether drafted or enlisted, many of the men kept up a correspondence with Busch throughout the war years. This collection also includes Calvary Church newsletters and pamphlets, pamphlets regarding persons registered for service, ration books and other rationing documents, and letters returned to Busch because their recipients were MIA, deceased, or relocated. Also included are photographs of Calvary Church activities on the Homefront, the basketball team, and the Calvary Church's V-J Day service as well as a copy of an article in which the photograph was featured.

The collection of Arthur W. Card contains an oral history transcript of an interview conducted by or for the Institute on World War II. He discusses bringing US troops to and from Europe, as well as returning German POWs to Germany at the end of the war. He also discusses his work in the engine room (where he felt proud to be "more important" to the soldiers on the ship because they relied on his work to keep them safe) and his time ashore in Naples, Italy.

This collection contains a transcript provided by the Reichelt Program for Oral History. Benjamin Epstein was a Jewish American serviceman who served in the U.S. Army Air Corps from 1942-1946, and he trained at Fort Logan, Colorado. He was transported on the U.S.S. Dorchester, which was torpedoed by a German U-Boat in February 1943. He described escaping from the sinking ship and swimming to one of two lifeboats. He was picked up by the U.S.S. Escambia and taken to Greenland. He remained in Greenland until January 1945 where he was transferred to Fort Totten, New York and remained there until discharged in 1946.

The papers of Carl Lavin contains a transcript provided by the Reichelt Program for Oral History. Carl Lavin served in the U.S. Army from 1943 to 1946 as an infantryman in the European Theatre of Operations with the 69th Infantry Division. He operated a Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) in the advance across Western Europe in 1944 to 1945, and he relates numerous anecdotes from his combat experiences.

This collection relates to Celia Shanker Fine who served as a secretary at the Department of Agriculture on the Home Front in Washington, DC, during WWII. She was a typist and stenographer for the school lunch program, and her collection reflects her viewpoint as a Jewish-American civilian.

This deaccessioned Collier County Museum, Naples, FL World War II collection includes four separate collections.  The first collection relates to Technician Fourth Grade Sergeant Dale E. Hortin who served with the 210th Field Artillery Battalion, 33rd Infantry Division,  in the Pacific Theater, which includes photographs, documents, foreign currency, and German stamps. The second collection includes U.S. ration booklets and ration documents. The third collection relates to Sheila Pritchard who served as an American Red Cross Nurse's Aide, which includes Red Cross documents and patches. The fourth collection relates to Corporal Frank Taylor who served in the Pacific Theater and includes postcards, Japanese occupation currency, and a vellum Domain of Neptune Rex certificate.

This collection relates to Private First Class Craig Darius Whitesell who served as an armorer with the 3rd Search Attack at Langley Field, VA during World War II. He was stationed in Atlantic City, NJ, Buckley Field, CO, Langley Field, VA, Florence, SC, and Great Bend, KS.

Crispen Nissen served as a sergeant in the U.S. Army Air Corps with the 12th and 18th Weather Squadrons during World War II in the United States, England, North Africa, and Italy. This collection includes an original diary Nissen kept from 1941-1942, describing his daily thoughts, experiences, and observations about the general war effort. The collection also includes Vmail and handwritten letters, written by Nissen to his fiancee and future wife, Etrulia Ellis, as well as the letters she sent to him.