Horace Miner collection, 1941-1992 (majority within 1941-1945)

Summary

Creator:

Miner, Horace (Horace Mitchell), 1912-1993

Abstract:

This collection contains military records, photographs, printed publications, maps, and ephemera related to Horace Mitchell Miner's service with the United States Army Counter Intelligence Corps in North Africa and Europe during World War II.

Extent:

0.5 linear feet

Language:

English
German
Italian
Arabic

Authors:

Collection processed and finding aid created by Meg Hixon, September 2012

Background

Scope and Content:

This collection contains military records, photographs, printed publications, maps, and ephemera related to Horace Mitchell Miner's service with the United States Army Counter Intelligence Corps in North Africa and Europe during World War II.

The Military Papers series (27 items) contains reports, orders, and other material related to campaigns in North Africa and Europe during World War II. The documents pertain to military personnel, orders, intelligence procedures and policies, counterintelligence operations, and the progress of the war in Central Europe. A small group of items pertains to a tea hosted by King George VI and the queen consort, Elizabeth, in November 1943. The series includes Miner's military identification, a translation of a "captured diary" (Lemiers, [Netherlands], September 16, 1944-September 29, 1944); a document promoting Otto Sulzbach to SS-Sturmbannführer of the Waffen-SS, signed by Heinrich Himmler (December 8, 1941), a signed note of thanks by Heinrich Himmler (undated), and a Counter Intelligence Directive for Germany issued by the 12th Army Group headquarters (April 18, 1945). Later items include a 1953 essay by Horace Miner about the actions of the II Corps in Tunisia and Sicily, printed letters from George H. W. Bush and Gordon R. Sullivan (October 1991), and a veterans' newsletter (July 15, 1992).

The Photographs and Maps series is comprised of photographs, printed and manuscript maps, a photographic aerial map, and a group of arranged and mounted photographs and colored manuscript maps.

The group of mounted photographs and maps respect the German invasion of France in 1940. The maps show the Wehrmacht's increasing progress through Belgium, Luxembourg, and France, and the photographs depict German soldiers, military cemeteries, German soldiers' graves, military equipment, destroyed buildings, and concrete bunkers. Some items are annotated in German. Two loose photographs are images of the Buchenwald concentration camp after Allied liberation, and a third shows a plaque donated to Clifton College by former members of the 1st United States Army's Headquarters Regiment in 1991.

The Printed Items and Ephemera series contains manuals, articles regarding military campaigns, propaganda, and other items related to North Africa, Italy, and Germany. One handbook and two manuals concern the Allied Forces' counterintelligence operations. La Favola Vera del Britanno, an illustrated book in Italian, is a work of propaganda in the form of a children's book, negatively depicting Great Britain. Three books about Hitler, the Nazi Party, and the SS were published in Germany between 1933 and 1940. Six items in the series are catalogued separately (see below). Ephemeral materials include items written in Arabic, a humorous poster regarding best practices for civilian blackouts, and United States, United Kingdom, and Romanian flags.

Biographical / Historical:

Horace Mitchell Miner was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on May 26, 1912, the son of James Burt Miner and Jessie L. Schulten. After earning his bachelor's degree from the University of Kentucky in 1933 and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1937, he taught at Wayne University from 1939-1941. During World War II, Miner served with the United States Army's Counter Intelligence Corps in North Africa and Europe. After 1946, he worked as a professor of sociology, professor of anthropology, and museum research associate at the University of Michigan. He retired in 1980. Miner and his wife, Agnes Murphy, married around 1936 and had a daughter, Denise Miner Stanford. Horace M. Miner died on November 26, 1993.

Acquisition Information:

Donated, 1984 and 1992. M-2884 .

Processing information:

Cataloging funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). This collection has been processed according to minimal processing procedures and may be revised, expanded, or updated in the future.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged in the following series:

• Series I: Military Papers
• Series II: Photographs and Maps
• Series III: Printed Items and Ephemera

Rules or Conventions:

Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Related

Additional Descriptive Data:

Alternate Locations

Eleven items are housed in the Map Division.

The following items are housed in the Book Division:

• Bade, Wilfrid, and Heinrich Hoffmann. Deutschland Erwacht: Werden, Kampf und Sieg der NSDAP. Altona-Bahrenfeld: Cigaretten-Bilderdienst, 1933.
• Goebbels, Joseph. Adolf Hitler: Bilder aus dem Leben des Führers. Altona-Bahrenfeld: Cigaretten/Bilderdienst, 1936.
• Weitzel, Fritz. Die Gestaltung der Feste Im Jahres- Und Lebenslauf in der SS-Familie. Wuppertal: Völkischer Verlag, 1940.

Related Materials

The following items in the collection have also been cataloged individually:

• Brignone, Gian Luigi, and Walter Roveroni. La Favola Vera. [Milan]: 1941.
• CI Handbook Germany. [London]: 1944.
• North Africa: for All Members of United States Expeditionary Forces in North Africa. 1943.
• Omaha Beachhead (6 June-13 June, 1944). Washington D.C.: War Dept., Historical Division, 1945.
• The Conquest of North Africa: the First Complete Authoritative Account of the Entire Three Years North African Campaign from Egypt to Tunisia : Full Story, Facts and Figures Hitherto Unrevealed : Illustrated with Explanatory Maps, Charts, and Official Photographs : Prepared from Official Records and First-hand Reports. London: Burke Pub. Co., 1943.
• To Bizerte with the II Corps, 23 April, 1943-13 May, 1943. Washington, D.C.: Historical Division, War Dept., 1946.

Horace Miner also donated the following items to the Clements Library:

• Bradley, Omar Nelson. A Soldier's Story. [1st ed.] New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1951.
• Catlin, George. Illustrations of the Manners, Customs, & Condition of the North American Indians: With Letters and Notes, Written During the Eight Years of Travel and Adventure Among the Wildest and Most Remarkable Tribes Now Existing. London: Catto & Windus, 1876.

Bibliography

Goldberg, David. "Horace M. Miner, 1912-1993." LSA Minutes.

University of Michigan. Regents. "Horace M. Miner." Regents' Proceedings 693.

Subjects

Click on terms below to find any related finding aids on this site.

Subjects:

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
World War, 1939-1945--Africa, North.
World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns--France.
World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns--Germany.
World War, 1939-1945--Propaganda.
Bunkers (Fortification)
Soldiers' bodies, Disposition of.
World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns--Belgium--Maps.
World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns--France--Maps.
World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns--Luxembourg.
World War, 1939-1945--Equipment and supplies.
World War, 1939-1945--Maps.
World War, 1939-1945--Propaganda.

Formats:

Articles.
Books.
Diaries.
Essays.
Identity cards.
Invitations.
Letters (correspondence)
Manuals (instructional materials)
Manuscript maps.
Maps.
Military records.
Newsletters.
Orders (military records)
Photographic prints.
Picture postcards.
Posters.
Propaganda.
Reports.
Translations.

Names:

United States. Army. Counter Intelligence Corps.
United States. Army. History--World War, 1939-1945.
Buchenwald (Concentration camp)
Germany. Wehrmacht.
United States. Army.
Bade, Wilfrid, 1906-1945.
Brignone, Gian Luigi.
Bush, George, 1924-.
Goebbels, Joseph, 1897-1945.
Himmler, Heinrich, 1900-1945.
Hoffmann, Heinrich, 1885-1957.
Roveroni, Walter.
Sullivan, Gordon R., 1937-.

Places:

Europe--History, Military--20th century.