Search

This collection contains letters that Staff Sergeant George J. Mahl wrote to his mother and sister while serving in the 346th Infantry Regiment in Europe during World War II. He described his service in England, France, and Belgium, and discussed his recuperation from a leg wound in army hospitals in France and England.

This collection (70 items) contains 63 letters that Staff Sergeant George J. Mahl wrote to his mother and sister while serving in the 346th Infantry Regiment in Europe during World War II. He described his service in England, France, and Belgium, and discussed his recuperation from a thigh fracture in army hospitals in France and England.

During his service overseas, Mahl sent letters and V-mail to his mother and sister, Marie and Helene Mahl. After arriving in England in October 1944, he discussed his transatlantic journey and commented on English food, currency, weather, and scenery. Mahl's regiment was transferred to France later that month, and he commented on war destruction, the effects of the weather, and the differences between civilian life in France and in England. He mentioned participating in active combat, and wrote one letter from a town his company had captured near the German border, in which he noted the increase in soldiers' church attendance following battle (December 17, 1944). Mahl, who was proficient in German, listened to German radio broadcasts, translated orders for German-speaking civilians, and communicated with German prisoners upon their surrender. Some of his letters have been censored.

Mahl was shot in the leg while fighting in Belgium in January 1945, and his remaining letters concern his medical condition and recovery. He wrote about his discomfort, described his medical treatments in French and English military hospitals, discussed fellow wounded men, and noted a large influx of patients in March. He occasionally remarked on his postwar plans, including the possibility of attending college. The Mahl family also received an official military telegraph and 4 postcards about Mahl's injury and recuperation. The collection contains 2 additional V-mail letters: one from George Mahl to Colonel F. M. Sheffield (ca. October 30, 1944) and one from Technical Sergeant Lee Zipfel to the Mahl family, concerning Zipfel's service in India (February 4, 1945). Mahl enclosed 2 photographs in his letter of March 25, 1945.

Photographs, negatives, and war papers of a Catholic nurse from Adrian (Mich.) who served in World War II in Sydney and Brisbane, Australia, and Bureaun, The Philippines. Also documented are her family, friends, medical staff, a convent and nuns in Louisiana.

The original part of the collection (Boxes 1-4) is organized into two series, Negatives and Photographs and then alphabetically by topic. The images are mostly undated, but date from the 1940s through the 1960s.

The majority of this part of the collection (1.25 cubic ft.) consists of undated Negatives, mostly of Grace’s relatives. There are many images of a family with four girls playing, eating, celebrating birthdays, going to school, being baptized, preparing for First Holy Communion, with Easter baskets, on vacation, and with extended family. The family traveled overseas, as well as to camp and enjoyed speed boating and fun with a jeep, during the 1950s-1960s. A family dog is in several negatives as well as the girls’ swing set. There are a number of images of a family with two boys, probably also relatives, playing, at a summer camp, and with family members.

There are numerous negatives a nun, who was a family member, first as a novice, and later as a professed nun, by herself, but more often with other nuns or family members, most often the four girls, their parents, and probably the nun’s mother, at church, the convent, visiting shrines, and at family gatherings. A number of the photographs clearly show the address of the convent as 717 Orleans Street. She was a member of the Holy Family Convent in New Orleans (Louisiana). [This information is from an e-news article in the Clarion Herald (the) Official Catholic Newspaper of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, Vol. 42, No. 14, July 2, 2003. According to the article, the convent moved to another location in 1955 after 80 years at 717. A convent, novitiate, and high school, St. Mary’s Academy, were once located at 717.]

Grace’s niece wrote to the archivist that a close family friend, Sr. Mary Matthew (a black nun) was from New Orleans. Francis’ daughter, Margaret Kelly’s sister, is also a (white) nun, Sr. Ruth Anne Kelly, an Adrian Dominican.

A priest is often in the family photographs, particularly with the family of four girls and with the nun. He may have been a family member as well.

Older negatives show the four girls’ Grandma, a boy often wearing knickers, and other senior family members wearing 1920s-1930s era clothing. Grandma apparently lived in her house, as the four girls visited her there with their parents. Grandma’s backyard, with her birdhouse and swing, with numerous large family gatherings, is featured in many negatives.

One folder of negatives shows Grace and various men in military uniforms with family members before leaving to serve in World War II. A common element in the negatives is the large pile of concrete blocks in the backyard.

Additional negatives show animals, buildings, trips, cars, and flowers, trees, etc.

The rest of the collection consists of Photographs (.5 cubic ft.). Most of the Photographs date from World War II and document Lieutenant Grace Kelly’s nursing experience and training at Fort Custer (Battle Creek, Michigan), in October 1943, in Brisbane and Sydney, Australia, in 1944, and in Bureaun, the Philippines, in 1945. The barracks, housing, operating room and equipment, island natives, nurses (working, relaxing, fooling around, on ship, in trucks, hauling equipment, and sightseeing), doctors, medical corpsmen, soldiers, prisoners, patients, animals, scenic wonders, as well as vehicles are documented.

Other photographs document later family barbecues and children in August 1960, and there is one photograph of a nun (Grace’s sister?) with a little girl (Grace’s niece?), dated September 1956.

A few additional, undated photographs of crowds at a Grand Stand, and people in an arena or stadium with loud speakers complete the collection.

All of the negatives that match photographs have been filed with the appropriate photograph.

The 2015 addition, Box 5 (.5 cubic feet) to the collection is a mix of incomplete materials, mostly papers, including U.S. Army special orders and other forms regarding Kelly’s enlistment, transfers, equipment, leave, hospitalization, demobilization, and clearance forms, receipts, and an application for pension. There is also information about how to set up a hospital and what equipment and supplies are necessary for such a hospital. There are some maps of hospital camp layouts, including one that is unidentified and one of Leyte Bay. There is a newspaper article about Kelly, which probably dates from the end of the war. There is also a newspaper image with text about the Angels of Bataan, nurses who were POWs of the Japanese. Kelly was not a POW. Also of interest are some poems, clearly authored by Americans serving in the Pacific. One poem is from a newsletter. Authorship of the poems is unknown.

It is likely that most of the photographs and pamphlets were the property of at least one of her brothers as they are European in nature. Most of the photographs are unidentified and only three are dated, all 1945. The photographs are pretty general in nature and include various civilian buildings and people, soldiers, planes in formation high overhead, various boats, and tents. Several photographs are identified as images taken in England, near the Elbe, along the Rhine, and in Munich. There is one photograph of an unidentified group of nurses. Ralph Kelly, who served in Bavaria, is identified in two images. There is an interesting sequence of four images showing several men practicing a life boat drill.

One item that is definitely that of Francis P. Kelly’s is an invitation to Eisenhower’s inauguration (copy), 1953.

Processing Notes: Many of the forms and the inaugural invitation were extremely acidic and were copied. Originals were removed from the collection. Also removed from the collection were several general publications about the war.

Mary H. Staats wrote regularly to Dr. H. Allan Novak of Boston, Massachusetts, while serving as a United States Navy nurse in the Solomon Islands and the United States during and just after World War II. She commented on her living conditions, work, education, and health.

Mary H. Staats wrote 30 letters to Dr. H. Allan Novack of Boston, Massachusetts, while serving as a United States Navy nurse in the Solomon Islands and the United States from 1944-1946. She commented on her living conditions, work, education, and health.

Staats wrote her first group of 20 letters while stationed in the Russell Islands between May 1, 1944, and [February 20], 1945. She worked for Mobile Hospital 10 and for United States Fleet Hospital 110. Her letters pertain to many aspects of her experiences, such as the scenery, her victory garden, and her quarters. On August 13, 1944, she recounted visiting a beach on Guadalcanal and hearing a performance by Bob Hope. She often reported on her own health problems and requested that Novack send medicines, clothing, and other items for personal and hospital use. In her letter of December 7, 1944, Staats complained that packages filled with religious papers, candy, and comic strips had taken unnecessary space in the mail, possibly blocking the receipt of more necessary items. Staats wrote one letter to her father, in which she mentioned her interactions with native islanders and radio broadcasts by "Tokyo Rose" (May 12, 1944).

Staats continued to write to Novack after her return to the United States (11 items). On April 11, 1945, and April 22, 1945, she reported on her travels from the Solomon Islands to Coshocton, Ohio, and provided additional information about her work with the 1st Marine Division. While stationed at the United States Naval Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she discussed her own health issues (May 17, 1945) and wrote a 15-page letter with detailed descriptions of her experiences in the Pacific (June 8, 1945). She described nurses' protection and quarters, the effects of excessive temperatures on nurses' health, and medical care, among other subjects. Five letters from Staats's time in Chicago, Illinois (September 30, 1945-May 6, 1946), pertain to the cost of living, courses at Northwestern University, the possibility of pursuing a career in the navy, and gynecological health. She often referred to the G.I. Bill of Rights and its potential effects on her education. A Christmas card is enclosed in her letter of December 8, 1945. Staats wrote additional letters to Novack from Coshocton, Ohio (September 6, 1946), and from Corpus Christi, Texas (August 20, 1947), where she complained about the chief nurse at the United States Naval Hospital.

This collection is primarily made up of letters that Pharmacist's Mate Norman C. Stewart wrote to his girlfriend and later wife, Dorothy Seltzer of Norristown, Pennsylvania, about his experiences in the United States Navy during World War II. Stewart served at the United States Naval Hospital in Newport, Rhode Island; in Oakland, California; and in the Pacific Theater.

This collection is made up of 56 letters that Pharmacist's Mate Norman C. Stewart wrote to his girlfriend and later wife, Dorothy Seltzer of Norristown, Pennsylvania, about his experiences in the United States Navy during World War II. Stewart served at the United States Naval Hospital in Newport, Rhode Island; in Oakland, California; and in the Pacific Theater. One letter by Norman's mother Katie and two school essays by Norman's brother Mervin complete the collection.

Stewart's correspondence concerns his navy service in Rhode Island, California, and the Pacific Theater from April 12, 1942-October 27, 1945. Only 1 letter from 1944 is present. Stewart discussed his work in a hospital laboratory while at Newport, and training maneuvers while at Alameda, California.

From February 1945-October 1945, Stewart commented on his travels in the Pacific, such as visits to Hawaii and Guam. His leisure activities included reading, attending football games, and seeing movies. Stewart's later letters concern the discharge process and his anticipated return to civilian life. Throughout his military service, he wrote of his love for Dorothy.

Mervin Stewart, Norman's brother, wrote 2 school essays in September 1943: "Verbal vs. Chemical Poison," about Axis propaganda, and "Country versus City Life." Stewart's teacher made brief remarks on each essay with a red pencil.