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 pertains to Barbara Lane Daley who served in the US Coast Guard Women's Reserve (SPARS) from 1944 to 1946. She was stationed at the US Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington D.C. The collection contains a photocopy of a scrapbook, photographs, newspaper clippings, ephemera, and various documents including pamphlets, postcards, menus, a restaurant placemat, and certificates. The newspaper clippings in this collection include photocopies as well as the original newspaper clippings of major U.S. events during WWII, such as President Roosevelt's death, the bombing of Pearl Harbor and Japan's surrender. Daley's scrapbook includes photographs of herself, military friends, and other SPARS at the U.S. Coast Guard training station in Palm Beach, Florida.

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.

This collection contains three World War II newspapers which include the Daily Standard, Celina, Ohio, the Dayton Daily News, and Dayton, Ohio, and School Sidelights printed by the Daily Standard for Immaculate Conception High School.

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 contains three issues of Eastern Aircraftsman magazines printed during World War II.

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.