Charles T. Hancock collection, 1943-1944
16 items
This collection primarily contains 13 letters that Charles T. Hancock, Jr., wrote to his parents in Mount Vernon, New York, while working for the Civilian Public Service (CPS) near Glendora, California, from 1943-1944. He discussed his life in camp, the scenery, pacifism, and his leisure activities.
Hancock addressed his letters to his parents, Charles T. and Florence R. Hancock, who had recently moved from the Bronx, New York, to Mount Vernon, New York. He composed 13 letters between June 21, 1943, and August 29, 1944, primarily about his time at the Civilian Public Service Camp at Petersham, Massachusetts, and at the San Dimas Civilian Public Service Camp in Glendora, California, where he worked in agricultural jobs and helped with a timber survey near Big Bear Lake. He described life at the camps and in Glendora, where he spent some of his leisure time and socialized with students from Scripps College. He visited Ensenada, Mexico (letter of May 15, 1944), and commented on the currency, attitudes toward the war, the Mexican Army, and the scenery. On his return to California, he passed through San Diego, where he noticed the camouflage netting around Consolidated and Douglas airplane manufacturing plants. Hancock made occasional remarks about pacifism and mentioned Methodist and Quaker religious meetings. In his letter of July 18, 1944, he enclosed an excerpt from Eleanor Roosevelt's column "If You Ask Me," in the Ladies Home Journal, and a program from a London String Quartet performance.
Additional items are an undated letter to Florence Hancock from H. Brewster of North Hollywood, California, a brochure for the Padua Hills Theater and its "Mexican Players," and a newspaper clipping about a home in Chatham, Massachusetts.