Collections

Fred Harwell Varn, Jr., served in the Army Air Force as a first lieutenant and P- 47 Thunderbolt pilot in the 404th Fighter Group, 507th Squadron, 9th Air Force in the European Theater (ETO). The collection includes a manuscript written by Varn's wife, Ruth K. Varn, about his WWII experience. Varn was born in 1924 in Jacksonville, Florida, and he attended the University of Florida from 1941-1942. While at UF, Varn passed the Army Air Corps Aviation Cadet Examining Board test. In February 1943, he was called to active duty and reported to Nashville, Tennessee. Varn attended training schools in Florida, Mississippi, and Alabama. Between November 1943 and February 1944, Varn was assigned to the 327th Fighter Group in Richmond, Virginia. In 1944, Varn took the Queen Mary to England where he was assigned to the 404th Fighter Group, 507th Squadron in Winkton, England. The 507th Squadron participated in D-Day by supporting forces at St. Lo. The manuscript contains photographs, letters, documents, and news clippings about Varn's experience. Varn was a fighter pilot in the 404th Fighter Group. His responsibilities were to dive bomb and strafe German ground targets. While in Europe, he was stationed in Chippelle, Normandy and Juvincourt France; St. Trand, Belgium; and Kelz, Fritzlar, and Stuttgart, Germany. He took part in some major battles, such as at Arnhem (Operation Market Garden), Aachen, and at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge. In his letters home, he talked about life in Europe, and he told his parents of his first time sleeping in a bed with sheets and how awkward it felt. His letters told his family about enemy planes flying over and how flak would fall from the sky onto their tents from American AA guns. The manuscript also includes a pictorial history, which includes pictures of Mr. Varn in uniform with his family prior to leaving for Europe and with his military buddies while on leave in Europe. There are also pictures of the P-47 Thunderbolt planes he flew. Lastly, also included are maps, newspaper clippings about the war and Mr. Varn, and diagrams of attack formations. Copyright Status

This collection relates to Fred H. Taeger who entered active service in the US Army on March 10, 1943. Taeger was stationed at Camp Forrest, TN where he worked as a German interpreter with the intelligence section of the prisoner of war (POW) area and directed interrogations of the German POWs. During this time, Taeger collected 65 drawings and paintings completed by German POWs. In addition to the artwork, the collection includes personal photographs and Taeger's discharge papers.

This collection relates to Fred L. Kagan Jr., who served with the 9th Army Air Force before transferring to the 5th Infantry Division. During the war, he served as a litter bearer in the European Theater of Operations from November 3, 1943 until the end of the war in 1945. This collection consists of documents, photographs, and artifacts related to the service of in the United States Army Air Force and US Army during World War II. The documents consist of official paperwork and discharge papers as well as identification documents. The photographs are primarily of fellow servicemen but also include some images of occupied Hanau, Germany. The artifacts mostly include US Army patches and pins, and medals, including a Bronze Star. There is also a Nazi armband and a torn Nazi Germany flag.

This collection relates to retired U.S. Navy Captain Fred S. Bertsch Jr. who served as the Engineer Officer during World War II in the Pacific Theater of Operations on the destroyer U.S.S. Case and the Korean War as a naval aviator.  The collection includes a daily handwritten log journal of activities aboard the U.S.S Case which begins with his eyewitness account of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, including the attack of the U.S.S. Arizona Battleship, through the end of 1943.  The collection also contains 133 original color slides, and digitized prints of the slides, taken by Bertsch Jr. aboard the U.S.S  Case during the Aleutian Island campaign in 1942, additional photographs, documents, artifacts, newspaper articles, and two publications authored by Bertsch Jr.

Microfilm of the fonds des colonies serie C13A, Volumes 1-53, covering French occupation of North America, 1694-1819. Filmed as part of the Louisiana Colonial Records Project in 1980, the C13A series covers reports, letters, maps, and other materials on the French settlement and colonization of Louisiana, West Florida, Pensacola, the upper Mississippi River Valley, the Illinois Territory, Canada and other areas of North America. The size of this research archives is beyond the scope of this Guide to describe, but there is considerable data on settlements, Indians, transportation, forts, shipwrecks, battles and war, Jesuit activity, troop movements, and more. Most materials are in French language.

Cahier Rouge by Lucile Duplessis Desmoulins (red homemade manuscript book/diary by Duplessis, wife of Camille Desmoulins, undated); manuscript letter from General Arthur Dillon to Camille Desmoulins (1793); a small collection relating to General Arthur Dillon's regiment before, during and after the French Revolution (1702-1847); unbound pamphlets including Desmoulins' Le Vieux Cordelier (1793), Desmoulins' Lettre de Camille Desmoulins (1793), and Observations due Comte De Lally-Tolendal Sur La Letre Erite Par M Le Comte De Mirabeau (1789); and an extra-illustrated copy of the English translation of Claretie's biography, Camille Desmoulins and His Wife (1876).

Includes materials related to the organizational structure and functionality of the club, club building, and affiliated organizations. Primarily consists of committee reports, yearbooks, member records, and scrapbooks detailing approximately 30 years of the organization's civic interests.