Collections : [University of Michigan William L. Clements Library]

Mary Alice Foley and her parents, American residents of Manila, were interned by the Japanese during World War II in a camp at the University of Santo Tomas. This collection contains her mother's journal, 213 photographs of Mary Alice, her family, and her friends, school girl letters, manuscripts and publications created and received while in the camp, and materials created for internee reunions.

The collection contains a wide variety of items from before, during, and after the Foley family's internment. Ella Foley's journal, 213 photographs of Mary Alice, family, and her friends, school girl letters, manuscripts and publications created and received while in the camp, and materials created for internee reunions are all present. A number of loving cups from the Polo Club in Manila and several publications have been transferred to the Graphics and Book Divisions, respectively.

Chronologically, the first item is a diary Ella Foley kept from October 13, 1937 to July 8, 1938, covering the family's first stay in Manila. She began the diary the day before she and Mary Alice left New York to join Frank in Manila, so the first two months give an detailed description of the sea voyage, including an interesting description of the Panama Canal (1937 October 22). Many of the photographs with the collection are pictures from the various places the Foleys visited while traveling to and from Manila, including the Panama Canal, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Japan.

The diary describes what life was like for Ella during her husband's first journey to Manila. Ella was not happy in the Philippines and hoped that her husband would not accept a permanent job there. "Manila would be a terrible future home," she wrote in her diary on 1838 January 6. Ella did not have much to do, especially since the hotel staff took care of their apartment. She made friends with some other American couples living in the Philippines, such as Mae and Jerry Sheehan, possibly related to John Sheehan, a priest who was interned with the Foleys during the war. Ella interacted very little with native Filipinos. She kept herself busy by seeing a movie nearly everyday, shopping, going to the polo club, drinking cocktails (she was especially fond of "White Ladies"), and even gambling.

Ella was a devout Catholic, despite her gambling, and went to church every Sunday, and celebrated all the holidays. On Good Friday, she went to go see the "Flagellantes," although she was somewhat skeptical: "It looked like blood on his back but it might have been red paint" (1938 April 15). Ella hardly mentioned anything about Japanese aggression, only noting that Japan had bombed the American gunboat "Panay" (1937 December 13). On her way back from Manila in 1938, she even stopped in Japan, as well as Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Of the letters in the collection, ten of them were sent to Mary Alice by various schoolmates during the Foleys' second stay in Manila. During 1940-41, Mary Alice was pleased with her school and had an active social life, spending time with her friends at the Polo Club. Many of the pictures in her scrapbook and additional pictures were taken by her and her friends at the Polo club. Mary Alice and her pals were particularly interested in boys, and spent paragraphs discussing the behavior of boys in their class and parties they attended.

Mary Alice's sheltered teenage world was dramatically changed with internment. Items from the internment camp include: school work and a report card, showing Mary Alice's graduation from high school; 3 birthday and Christmas cards; a small diary kept by Mary Alice from April 22 to May 26, 1944; "Our Time," a satirical play of internment life, broadcast over the PA system in 1942; the September 1942 issue of "The Internitis," a newspaper published by internees; worksheets for Spanish verbs; an internment baseball program; a listing of camp rules from 1942; and a transcription of a speech made for her high school graduation.

Also from that time period are seven letters from the War Department to her mother's sister Irene McTeague and father's brother Joseph H. Foley; three camp form-letter postcards that Mary Alice and her mother sent to people in the United States; and an article about the camp from Life, September 7, 1942. Mary Alice later compiled the letters, the postcards, some photographs, the camp rules of 1942, and a brochure showing pictures of Santo Tomas into a scrapbook.

The play, "Our Time," (of which Mary Alice contributed the lyrics to one song) and "The Internitis" reveal the internees' life and their methods of coping with their loss of freedom and uncertainty in the future. The Japanese did not seem to censor the publications too strictly, so "Our Time" satirized life in camp through comments like, "Why clean any [more rooms]? We'll only be here for 3 days," and "that Venetian blind is a lot softer than this concrete to sleep on" ("Our Time," page 1). "The Internitis" has stories and articles relating to camp life, and reveals the wearing nature of being interned as well as the internees' efforts to create a normal life by building shanties for privacy and exchanging recipes.

The Christmas and birthday cards to Mary Alice and her mother try to be full of optimism and hope, with sentiments such as, "May this xmas be a nice one / Even though you are in here" (Betsy McRea, n.d.). Mary Alice, as recorded in her diary, kept herself busy by working at internment camp jobs, playing baseball, and taking college courses in "Economics, English Lit. & Psychology" (1944 May 25). She also recorded her weight in 1944, and noted how it had dwindled from 164 pounds on May 1, 1944 to 124 pounds on January 1, 1945.

The post-internment materials in the collection include a letter to Mary Alice from Rev. John Sheehan, who was also interned in Santo Tomas and in 1945 was touring the country speaking about his experiences. Finally, the collection contains photographs from the fortieth and fiftieth reunions of the Santo Tomas Internment Camp and a transcription of the speech given by Mary Alice at the fiftieth reunion. The speech gives some additional details of life in the camp.

This collection is made up of diaries, correspondence, documents, scrapbooks, photo albums, negatives, yearbooks, awards, artifacts, and regalia of career U.S. Navy officer David Nash. Much of the content relates to Lieutenant Nash's naval career and his time as a prisoner of war in the Pacific during World War II.

This collection is made up of diaries, correspondence, documents, scrapbooks, photo albums, negatives, yearbooks, awards, artifacts, and regalia of career U.S. Navy officer David Nash. Much of the content relates to Lieutenant Nash's naval career and his time as a prisoner of war in the Pacific during World War II.

The Diaries include two volumes (380 pages) by David Nash, detailing his experiences as a prisoner of war for over three and a half years during World War II. These are illustrated copies made after the war from original diaries and notes (one of his shipmates buried the first portion of the original diary in a 5-gallon tin can on Luzon in order to recover it later). Lieut. Nash's almost daily entries reveal his activities, health, mentality and moods, plus information on the activity around him and any rumors or gossip. Most entries conclude with a note to his "darlings," his wife Honoria and daughter Julie. Detailed illustrations of the prison camps and ships appear throughout the diaries. Nash also included relevant drawings in the margins (guards, a shower, turkey dinner, himself reading, playing cards, etc.).

The first diary is an alphabet-sectioned ledger with 300 lined pages, covering December 1, 1941, to May 29, 1944. It also contains lists of USS Mindanao personnel and occupants of Barrack #9 Camp. The diary opens with two watercolor maps of the China Sea entitled "Cruise of U.S.S. Mindanao, 1941" and "Corregidor and Vicinity, 1942." David Nash described his time on Mindanao, stationed at Corregidor during its surrender and capture by the Japanese forces, and as a prisoner of war at Bilibid Prison, Cabanatuan, USAFFE Camp 91st Division, a second time at Bilibid Prison, and the Davao Penal Colony.

The second diary has 80 lined pages and spans October 13, 1944, to October 10, 1944. This volume continues Nash's account of life as a prisoner of war. He described his experiences on the hell ship Oryoku Maru, at Hoten Camp in Mukden, Manchuria, and during the camp's liberation on August 19, 1945.

The Naval Documents, Correspondence and Articles series contains letters, reports, newspaper clippings, personal notes, awards, an illustration, and ephemera relating to David Nash's naval career and POWs in general; the bulk of which ranges between 1934 and 2005. A portion of the documents in this series relate to the family of a fellow naval officer named Heisinger.

• USS Hornet files: Nash's correspondence requesting aircraft reports, aircraft action reports from the Hornet's carrier air group 11 bombing the hell ships Nash was held on, and Hornet Club ephemera, 1944-1945, 1972-2000.
• Prisoner of War files: Nash's postwar correspondence with a fellow POW, who wrote on the band and entertainers at one of Nash's camps. Other papers include reports on how to survive as a prisoner of war, healthcare for survivors, articles relating to prisoners of war, pamphlets on American Japanese internment camps and the misuse of the term 'internment,' and Nash's personal notes, 1972-2008.
• Heisinger files: Correspondence between the Heisinger family and David Nash, printed materials relating to World War II, official Navy photographs, and personal photographs.
• Awards and Commendations: Awards given to David Nash by the Navy and the President of the United States and correspondence upon his retirement from the Navy.
• Illustration of USS Mindanao
• Map of a Western Pacific Cruise and a pin-up.

The Scrapbooks series consists of two scrapbooks.

• [Personal Moments, 1928-1948]. This scrapbook tracks David and Honoria's life from high school until 1948. Much of it focuses on David Nash's career and his time as a prisoner of war. It contains photographs, newspaper clippings, letters, awards, telegrams, and ephemera, with captions or notes on most pages. Of particular note are letters and telegrams to Honoria Nash from the Navy informing her on her husband's status as missing and later as prisoner of war.
• "Scrapbook, Hong Kong 1939-Dec. 1964." This scrapbook primarily traces David Nash's naval career through photographs, newspaper clippings, invitations, and ephemera from 1939 to 1964. It includes a few references to his wife Honoria's volunteer work and his daughter Julie's engagement.

The Photographs series contains four photo albums and many negatives.

Subseries: Photo Albums

• "Aug. 1939 to 1941 En Route and at Hong Kong." This album consists of personal photographs from David and Honoria's honeymoon in the Grand Canyon in 1939, their travels to Hong Kong by way of San Francisco and Honolulu, life in Hong Kong up until the evacuation of dependents in 1940 and his assignment on USS Mindanao in 1941. Other locations photographed include Kowloon, Shameen, Canton, and New Territories. Each page is captioned with a date and/or description. Also included in this album is an envelope with duplicates and a telegram to David Nash's father informing him that his son's name was on a list of personnel at Camp Hoten in Mukden, Manchuria.
• [Navy Photos, 1952-1960]. This album contains 40 photographs from 1952 to 1960, highlighting various events in David Nash's career, changes in command, reunions, an inspection trip, and naval ceremonies. It also includes individual and group portraits with fellow officers and staff. Some photographs include descriptions and dates.
• [Navy Photos, 1960-1961, 1966]. This album is comprised of U.S. Navy photographs, largely from the period of David Nash's Naval Intelligence posting. Additional images include aerial photographs, Navy ships, two postcards from 1966, a Navy certificate, and an envelope containing miscellaneous negatives and photographs. Many of the photographs include notes with names and descriptions.
• "Navy 1959-1965." This album consists of personal photographs from David Nash's Navy assignments. The three primary groupings include "Corregidor & Ft. Hughes 1959," "Comdesron 5 Deployment 1960," and "District Intelligence Officer 1961-65." Locations featured are Thailand (including Bangkok), Singapore, Saigon, Philippine Islands, Hong Kong, and California. Most photographs include notes on locations and names.

Subseries: Negatives. This subseries contains negatives from photographs of wide-ranging dates and topics, all related to David Nash's personal life and career.

The Yearbooks series contains four Lucky Bag United States Naval Academy yearbooks from 1932, 1933, 1934, and a 50 Year Rendezvous USNA-1935 anniversary yearbook.

The Artifacts and Regalia series contains objects from David Nash's career including his desk name plate, two plaques, a naval uniform belt, a bronze star, dog tags, and various other uniform accessories (ribbons, medals, pins, buttons, etc.).

This diary contains Rhoda B. Stoker's recollections of a car trip she took with her family in August 1935. They traveled from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Idaho, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, California, and Nevada. The volume includes family and travel photographs from 1920, 1924, 1933, and 1935.

This diary (1 volume) contains Rhoda B. Stoker's recollections of a car trip she took with her family in August 1935. They traveled from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Idaho, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, California, and Nevada. The volume includes family and travel photographs from 1920, 1924, 1933, and 1935. The volume, comprised of two ruled spiral notebooks bound together with yarn, contains around 170 pages of material: the first 46 pages (recto) are numbered 1-[46], and the remaining pages (verso) are numbered [47-183].

Stoker's narrative (pages 1-[46]) recounts the trip she took with her son Edwin and "Aunt Clara King" from August 4, 1935-August 20, 1935. The family traveled by car from their home in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Vancouver, British Columbia, and followed the Pacific Coast south to Los Angeles, California. On their return journey, they drove from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City via the Mojave Desert and Las Vegas, Nevada. Stoker recorded details about the group's experiences and expenses, including the names of restaurants they visited, the car's odometer reading, and the amount and cost of gasoline they purchased; she combined all trip expenses at the end of her account (p. [46]). Stoker described the scenery and cities they visited, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, and discussed traveling by car ferry.

Stoker pasted photographs and postcards into her diary, sometimes including descriptions of photos she intended to add. Most images have captions, which include information about the location, date, and photographer. The pictures depict the Stoker family, their companions, and scenery from trips to the Pacific Coast in the summers of 1933 and 1935, including the family's lodgings, redwood trees, bridges, steamers, car ferries, military boats and submarines, and the family's car. One series of photographs depicts animals (prepared with taxidermy) at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Painted postcards and postcard sets show cities such as Tijuana, Mexico; San Diego, California; Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; and Victoria, British Columbia, as well as scenes from California's Pacific coastline.

The Marion E. Grusky Rucker Collection contains materials reflecting on her service in the United States Navy Reserves from 1943 to 1954, her naval training and education, her promotions from ensign to lieutenant commander, and her work as a teacher and career consultant. A personal narrative describing attendance at a naval training exercise in 1945 and other items reflect aspects of sexism in the military during and following the Second World War.

The Marion E. Grusky Rucker Collection contains materials reflecting on her service in the United States Navy Reserves from 1943 to 1954, her naval training and education, her promotions from ensign to lieutenant commander, and work as a teacher and career consultant. A personal narrative describing attendance at a naval training exercise in 1945 and other items reflect aspects of sexism in the military during and following the Second World War.

The Correspondence Series contains letters sent to Marion E. Grusky Rucker, principally written in the 1950s and concerning her naval appointments, her coursework, and teaching opportunities, including her year abroad teaching with a Fulbright Scholarship. Several letters relate to her release from active duty and its impact on her coursework at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in 1953. One letter written by Donald Rucker to his mother announces his upcoming marriage to Marion E. Grusky. One undated letter written by Rucker's granddaughter is also present.

The Documents Series includes materials relating to Rucker's naval career, including personnel paperwork concerning her appointments, promotions, education, leaves and discharges, retirement, and other matters. The series also contains various instructions and orders, and authorization to wear the American Campaign Medal and American Theatre Victory Ribbon. The partially printed document appointing Rucker as a Reserve Officer at the rank of Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy in October 1956 uses male pronouns, indicating gendered expectations for the officer class. Personal affairs are also reflected, including the official change of her last name from Gradzinsky to Grusky in 1948, her work permit allowing her to teach in England in 1958, and her resume. Three passports date from 1958, 1970, and 1975.

The Writings Series consists of typed accounts, speech notes, drafts, and a eulogy. Two accounts produced by Rucker and her colleague Dorothy Weeks on September 14, 1945, detail a trip to Norfolk, Virginia, to attend training exercises aboard the U.S.S. Beverly Reid. They discuss how they circumvented sexism to secure travel arrangements to Norfolk, their accommodations, and observations of the ship and its crew. In Rucker's account she wrote, "The day before I called and called trying to get reservation on the Nats, but all I got with my feminine voice was the run around. Being persistant [sic] and determined, I had a man lend us his voice to persuade the WAVE that we had to have passage on the 4:30 Plane. Being a man, his charm did the trick and we were put on the list." She also referred to anxiety caused by a known rape, using bathrooms designed for men, men's curiosity over their presence, and embarrassment over a mishap with her purse while boarding the ship. "So here was Grusky rushing up the gangplank only to be jerked back by a feminine doodad. Naturally the men grinned." She also noted the captain showing her and Weeks a scrapbook that included photos, notes, and souvenirs relating to his tours, including documenting sexual encounters with women in various ports. The captain took their photo without warning, and Rucker reflected, "I suppose that we will be added to the collection. We hope our faces will not join the rouge's [sic] gallery or that we won't be classed as one of his conquests." The later typed version of Rucker's account includes an additional page of reminiscences about her service as a USNR Communications officer, with a final thought that, "A male first name may have permitted me to be sent (to the amusement of my CO) on some unusual assignments. i.e. being aboard a submarine and other small craft while on training maneuvers with rarely another WAVE in the group." Weeks' account parallels Rucker's, offering different details and perspectives on the trip.

The speech notes reflect Rucker's focus on women, their career development, goal-setting, and self-appraisal. Other notes document Rucker's biographical events, listing out employment and places she lived.

Lee Rucker Keiser's eulogy for her mother is included, entitled "A Four C's Woman of the World," commenting on Rucker's life and their relationship.

The Diary Series consists of one volume Rucker maintained during her year teaching in Norwich, England, from 1958 to 1959, describing daily life, work at the school, visits with her husband Donald who was working at Cambridge, and travels in Europe during vacations. A list of her cash account for the year and a list of school vacations for herself and Don are also present, and two photographs of Rucker are laid in to the volume.

The Printed Materials Series includes a copy of The Buckeye Way: A Unique Guide to Columbus and Franklin County (1974), written by Marion Rucker and Anne La Pidus, with a newspaper clipping about the publication laid in. Newspaper articles concerning Rucker's naval career, a copy of her obituary, and a printed remembrance produced following her death are also present.

The Photographs Series consists of 15 photographs. They depict Marion E. Grusky Rucker in uniform, both in formal portraits and informal snapshots with colleagues, at an Officer's Club dinner at Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, and at her graduation from the University of Michigan in 1963, as well as several personal photographs.

The Julius Bromet papers are made up of letters, postcards, and a diary that Bromet wrote while serving with the 305th Field Hospital (later the 305th Ambulance Company) during World War I. In his letters to his parents and brother, Bromet described his experiences at Camp Upton, New York, and in France; his diary pertains to his time in France during and after the war. The collection has four photographs.

The Julius Bromet papers are contains 145 letters and postcards and a diary that Bromet wrote while serving with the 305th Field Hospital (later the 305th Ambulance Company) at Camp Upton, New York, and in France during and after World War I. The collection also has 4 photographs: 2 photographs attached to the letter of December 7, 1917, and 2 in a separate series.

The Correspondence series consists of 145 letters and from Julius Bromet to his parents, Solomon and Annie Bromet; his brother, Louis Bromet; and "Minnie and Baby;" all letters were sent to his father's home in Brooklyn, New York. From March 7, 1917, to March 14, 1917, and again from December 9, 1917, to April 2, 1918, he wrote from Camp Upton on Long Island, New York, about his training and equipment. He also related rumors of his unit's upcoming transfer to Europe. After a brief period with the 152nd Depot Brigade in December 1917, Bromet returned to the 305th Field Hospital, which traveled to France via England in April 1918. In one 10-page letter from April 1918, he described his transatlantic voyage.

After his arrival in France around April 21, 1918, Bromet wrote about aspects of life near the front, including his account of witnessing a German and French "aeroplane fight" (July 26, 1918), and reported rumors that an armistice was imminent. After the war, he was stationed near Chaumont and Solesmes, France, where he described the scenery and conveyed the pleasures of sleep unhindered by the sounds of airplane raids and machine guns (November 12, 1918), though he admitted having an eerie feeling about the silence (November 14, 1918). He left France in May 1919. Two photographs of a soldier are enclosed in his letter of December 5, 1918. Illustrated postcards of various French scenes; new recruits at Camp Upton, New York (4 items, December 4, 1917); and several uniformed soldiers (3 items, undated). Bromet's co-workers sent him a postcard wishing him a safe return from the war (December 7, 1917).

Julius S. Bromet kept a Diary (53 pages) between April 6, 1918, and May 7, 1919, during his service in France. In daily entries, he noted the weather and interesting occurrences, such as a burial at sea during the voyage to France (April 18, 1918) and a close encounter with falling shrapnel (May 9, 1918). He also witnessed occasional air raids and unfavorably compared U.S. Army quarters to British quarters. He wrote his final entry just after arriving in Hoboken, New Jersey, on May 7, 1919, and expected to be mustered out within the next two days; he wrote down "Thurs May 8" but did not complete the entry. The diary also contains addresses and a list of letters that Bromet mailed home.

The Photographs series includes a portrait of a soldier, which is housed in a frame with the word "Welcome," illustrations of American flags, and the date (May 10, 1919), and a picture of a man and three women in a domestic environment. Two additional photographs are attached to the letter of December 5, 1918.

This collection is made up of correspondence, diaries, and other items related to Nathan Tufts, a native of Massachusetts who served in the United States Army during World War I, and his future wife, Dorothy Day of Connecticut.

This collection is made up of correspondence, diaries, and other items related to Nathan Tufts, a native of Massachusetts who served in the United States Army during World War I, and his future wife, Dorothy Day of Connecticut.

The Correspondence series (1.5 linear feet) comprises the bulk of the collection. Incoming letters to Nathan Tufts at the Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut, are dated as early as November 11, 1915. His correspondents included his mother, who wrote of life in New York City and Lawrence Park, New York, and Elbridge Stratton, a friend, who anticipated their matriculation at Yale. Dorothy Day received early letters from friends and family while she attended Miss Wheeler's School in Providence, Rhode Island. Friends and family continued to write letters until the late 1910s, and the Tufts received many letters of congratulation following their engagement around May 1918.

Tufts began corresponding with Day in the fall of 1916. He wrote about his experiences and activities at Yale and expressed his romantic feelings for her. After the declaration of war against Germany in April 1917, Tufts reported on his participation in drills and related activities for the Reserve Officers' Training Corps. He later described his training experiences at Camp Jackson, South Carolina, and Camp Zachary Taylor, Kentucky. In Kentucky, he commented on the Central Officers' Training School, travels in the South, fellow soldiers, camp life, and kitchen duty. After the Armistice, Tufts anticipated his return to civilian life and his future with Day; he returned to Yale in 1919 and wrote about vacationing in Maine. His final telegram is dated February 21, 1920. Enclosures include a postcard showing the Rocky Broad River (November 3, 1918) and photographs of a military camp (October 18, 1918).

The couple's other wartime correspondents included Corporal Francis Harrison, who discussed his preparation for front-line duty in France in August 1918, and "Clark," a friend of Dorothy, who served at the Plattsburgh Barracks after September 1917. Clark discussed his training at the Reserve Officers Training Camp and his later service in the 302nd Machine Gun Battalion at Fitchburg, Massachusetts. In his letter of October 6, 1917, he described his unit's preparations for military exercises in trench warfare, and his expectation that the infantry would "sit in trenches and fire once in a while" in France.

The Diaries series contains two items. Dorothy Day kept a daily diary (unbound) between January 17, 1916, and August 16, 1919, writing mostly about her social life and her relationship with Nathan Tufts. She sometimes remarked on news, such as the results of the 1916 presidential election and the country's declaration of war against Germany. In 1918, she wrote about Tufts's military career; some of her entries from this period are constructed as letters to him. Day usually wrote daily entries on one side of each page, copying quotations, poetry, and other miscellany on the reverse side. A calling card, a printed advertisement, a flower, and a photograph are laid into her diary.

The Nathan Tufts diary covers much of his active-duty service at Camp Jackson, South Carolina, and Camp Zachary Taylor, Kentucky. From August 18, 1918-November 14, 1918, he wrote intermittent journal entries, often addressed to Day, about his daily routine at Camp Jackson, military training exercises, other soldiers, the good reputations of Yale students and alumni, and the end of the war. Journal entries by Day, apparently mailed to Tufts, are interspersed among his later entries; her final journal-letter is dated January 23, 1919. A military pass, United States Reserve Officers Training Corps patch, and newspaper clippings (often of poems) are pasted into the volume.

The School Papers series (9 items) pertains to Nathan Tufts's education at the Taft School and at Yale College's Sheffield Scientific School. A group of printed entrance exams for Yale College and its Sheffield Scientific School, dated June 1914 (1 item) and June 1915 (5 items) contain questions related to Latin, American history, ancient history, and trigonometry. A printed exam given by the college entrance examination board from June 19, 1916-June 24, 1916, contains questions about American history, the German language, and English literature. An exam requiring a translation of lines by Virgil is dated 1916. A bundle of examinations and school documents belonging to Nathan Tufts includes Yale College's semi-annual examination for June 1917, with questions in subjects such as physics, history, English, German, and Latin; a printed course timetable and list of professors and classrooms for Yale College freshman during the 1916-1917 term, with manuscript annotations by Nathan Tufts; and a typed military examination for Yale students, given on June 4, 1917 or 1918. The subjects of the military examination are hygiene, military law, topography, and field artillery regulations and drill.

The Photographs, Newspaper Clippings, and Ephemera series contains around 50 items, including visiting cards, invitations, Red Cross donation certificates, and a printed program. Many of the newspaper clippings contain jokes or brief articles about World War I. A group of photographs includes a framed portrait of a United States soldier, a negative, and several positive prints.

The Johnson collection consists primarily of letters between W. D. Johnson and his wife, Jane, during the Second World War, but includes letters from family and friends as well. The collection provides perspectives on both the home front and the European war front.

The Johnson papers consist primarily of letters between W. D. Johnson and his wife, Jane, during the Second World War, but includes letters from family and friends as well. Johnson also kept a few miscellaneous issues of Stars and Stripes, a map of northeastern France, and a journal in which he wrote sporadically.

Both Johnson and his wife are keen and intelligent writers and observers. Their letters show the anxiety and concern for each other, but also give insight into the larger picture of the home front, the war, and family and friends.

This collection has two main points of interest. First is the home front, described eloquently by Jane. She went to work immediately after Johnson left for training in Missouri, and quickly found a reasonably well-paying job at the Katharine Gibbs School. Although her salary was far less than that earned by women working in the war plants, Jane still brought home $160 per week. Her letters are filled with discussion of the effects of rationing and the constant scramble to find consumer goods and foodstuffs. Her letters also suggest how women whose husbands or boyfriends had been sent overseas banded together to create tight-knit social circles.

The second area of interest is the war front. Johnson writes to his wife frequently, though he rarely speaks of the horrors of the front. Partly because the Army censored his outgoing mail, Johnson rarely mentioned specifics about military events, but his journal and manuscripts chronicle his experiences in France and Belgium, and provides some useful information on the battles he survived, including the Battle of the Bulge. The contrast between his letters to his wife and his journal makes an interesting and useful comparison.

Johnson's letters indicate a dislike of different nationalities, particularly detested the French: "Gee, I love the French. They're so lazy, so dirty, so unworthwhile, they whimper and whine." Elsewhere, he wrote "The French have thoroughly sacked the country, we're perfect gentlemen compared to the Russians and the French." After witnessing the atrocities at Nordhausen, he concluded that the Germans were completely unworthy of sympathy. Letters received from Johnson's friend, Lt. Col. J. B. Coolidge stationed in the Philippines, provide insightful commentary on racial perceptions of the Japanese and Koreans. "The Jap is not so much hated for what he does but he is despised as a human being. His own ruthlessness and his inhuman methods so that the passion has become an automatic reaction."

The W. D. Johnson collection also illustrates the attitudes of enlisted men toward officers. Johnson considered his officers among the worst pillagers in France and Germany, and opined that the "Army suffers inefficiency beyond imagination because it does not enjoy sufficient public sanction to go all the way with its measures -- must continuously compromise."

The collection consists of a 172-page diary, composed in the summer of 1906 (July 3-Sept. 2) about Helen Moorhouse’s experience as a hired musician at a hotel on Cape Cod, and a series of 32 letters that Moorhouse wrote from the Nichewaug Inn in Petersham, Massachusetts, to Alice E. Brown, the woman with whom she was romantically involved, in the summer of 1915.

The collection consists of a 172-page diary, composed in the summer of 1906 (July 3-Sept. 2) about Helen Moorhouse’s experience as a hired musician at a hotel on Cape Cod, and a series of 32 letters that Moorhouse wrote from the Nichewaug Inn in Petersham, Massachusetts, to Alice E. Brown, the woman with whom she was romantically involved, in the summer of 1915. The diary includes numerous photographs, concert programs, and other clippings related to her summer. Both the diary and correspondence reflect Moorhouse’s interests in music, botany, art, and reading.

I. Diary, 1906

Helen Moorhouse’s 172-page diary from the two months she spent as a contracted musician at the Hotel Mattaquason in Chatham, Massachusetts, in the summer of 1906 offers a detailed account of daily life at a summer resort on Cape Cod.

Positioned somewhere between the hotel’s wait-staff and guests, Helen and her fellow trio members, Mary Molly Durgin and E. Isabel Foster, performed twice each day, but otherwise seem to have spent much of their time reading, sewing, and going on outings to the beach or into the village of Chatham. The diary entries record these activities, along with anecdotes about the hotel guests and employees, with particular attention paid to how the music the trio prepared and performed was selected and received. Other figures that appear throughout the diary are Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Wilkey, the Hotel Mattaquason’s proprietors; hotel guest Mrs. Edward Arthur James, of Chicago, and her son Sydney L. James, a violinist who often played with the Middlesex Trio over the course of the summer; Miss Ellen L. Cabot, a hotel guest who frequently commented on the trio’s music; Miss Haddock, a guest who also performed music; and Mr. Middlemass, the hotel’s head waiter and a student at Harvard. Other entries of note include a lengthy description of ice on the Great Lakes (29-31), the visits of an Armenian trader to the hotel (59; 113), a description of meeting journalist Lillian Whiting, who wrote The House Beautiful (83), and the complaints of an old crank of a Women’s Club Woman (99-103).

The journal contains various pieces of ephemera related to the concerts, activities, and places described in the written entries. These additions include 65 photographs (18 of which are cyanotypes), of beach scenes, the village of Chatham, the hotel, and its guests and staff; 2 real photo postcards; 2 hand-drawn sketches, one a diagram of her room and the other the view from her window; 2 news clippings; 6 concert programs from the Middlesex Trio’s performances at the Mattaquason; 3 visiting cards; 4 dinner menus from the hotel; a letter of music recommendations from Mr. Herbert H. White; and several other miscellaneous pieces of the hotel’s promotional literature. A couple of the photographs show men outfitted in dresses to play a hybrid game of baseball and tennis with the ladies of the hotel (132-133).

Moorhouse seems, in part, to have kept the diary as a record of the summer to share later with her parents, who were themselves vacationing for part of the summer at the shore in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts.

II. Correspondence, [1915]

This portion of the collection consists of thirty-two letters that Helen Moorhouse wrote between the end of June and mid-August 1915 to Alice E. Brown, a widow with whom she was romantically involved.

Moorhouse was in the midst of a nine-week contract to perform as a member of a music trio at the Nichewaug Inn in the central Massachusetts town of Petersham, while Brown was at home in Melrose, just outside Boston. During their time at the Nichewaug, Moorhouse and her fellow musicians, Susie Wells and a Miss Wilson, tended to practice music or paint landscape scenes in the mornings and performed each afternoon and evening in the hotel’s music room. The letters also reveal her keen interest in botany, art, and reading. In particular, she spent much of the summer reading the works of American philosopher John Fiske, whose son was the proprietor of the Nichewaug, as well as a history of architecture.

Moorhouse’s account of her days at the Nichewaug are interspersed with outpourings of longing for Alice, her Dear Heart, and candid reflections about how the couple was negotiating the familial and financial terrain of their relationship. News about Brown’s two children, Effie and George, as well as Moorhouse’s aunts feature prominently in the correspondence. A couple of the letters additionally contain Moorhouse’s thoughts on current events, including World War I, women’s suffrage, and the status of Native Americans living on reservations. In one of the letters, she included sketches of British war posters that a group of women fundraising for Belgian refugees had brought to the hotel to display and sell.

The Louis G. Monté collection is made up of 2 diaries about Americans traveling in Europe in the summer of 1899. Monté and another traveler wrote entries about sightseeing in England, France, Germany, and the Netherlands. Both journals have pencil drawings of people encountered and each doubles as a scrapbook with photographs, tickets, programs, and other ephemera.

The Louis G. Monté collection is made up of 2 diaries about Americans traveling in Europe in the summer of 1899. Monté and another traveler wrote entries about sightseeing in several European countries, and both used their journals as scrapbooks.

Louis G. Monté wrote daily diary entries between July 5, 1899, and August 26, 1899 (Volume 1, pages 5-73). He described his journey from Charlestown, Massachusetts, to England on the steamer New England and arrived on July 14. He saw the sights in London, England; Paris, France; Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen), Cologne (Köln) and Düsseldorf, Germany; and Amsterdam and Haarlem, Netherlands. He often visited museums and commented on local architecture and customs. Monté's brief final entries pertain to his return journey from Antwerp, Belgium, to New York on the steamer Southwark. Monté also used his book as a scrapbook for photographs and ephemera (pages 1-4 and 1a-36a; not all pages are used), and he wrote notes about French, English, and German currency on pages 2-4. The book's endpapers and cover also have items pasted in, such as tickets, programs, advertisements, and other ephemera. Photographs primarily depict scenes and people in the Netherlands, and numerous drawings illustrate people he encountered during his European travels. Pages 21a-22a (Volume 1) contain an essay on English architecture.

The second diary (unattributed) covers the author's travels from August 3, 1899-August 16, 1899 (pages 1-33), with photographs, stamps, tickets, train schedules, and other ephemera interleaved with the journal entries (pages 34-55 and 1a-55a; not all pages are used). The author drew pictures of people and wrote notes. He visited the same locations as Monté and sketched a nearly identical image of a woman in Aix-La-Chappelle, Germany (Vol. 1, p. 19a; Vol. 2, p. 2). Most of the pasted-in ephemera items pertain to travels in the Netherlands.

Jenny Olin taught at a mission school on Kusaie, one of the Caroline Islands in the South Pacific. Her letters home to her friends describe her life and work with the girls in the mission school and the Kusaie natives who lived and worked with her.

Jenny Olin's thirty letters from Kusaie, dating from November 16, 1898 to March 21, 1910, are directed to her friends, Bessie and Annie Turner in Thomaston, Conn. Olin's lengthy letters describing her life and work with the girls in the mission school and the Kusaie natives who lived and worked with her are a pleasure to read. There are also two letters to Bessie from Miss Hoppin, written in July 1911, during Olin's final illness. There is a letter to Bessie, translated by Olin, from an island woman named Mareta, who had been "adopted" by Bessie, thanking her for some presents. There are two letters to Olin. The collection also includes a nineteen page copy of a journal she kept while touring the Marshall Islands, a ten page, unfinished manuscript about the life of Jenny Olin, some notes probably compiled by the unknown author of the sketch, a printed map of the world, showing the Missions of the American Board in 1884, and eight photographs of missionaries and the children of the mission.

The life Olin described was impossibly difficult, with inadequate shelter, clothing, food, or comforts of any sort. The native crops were fair but the supply was erratic. In this period, cyclones and tidal waves twice devastated both housing and much of the food crops. The mission depended on ships bringing mail and supplies but the visits were infrequent and unreliable. Yet in the face of these obstacles, these letters are shot through with humor, and with a feeling of purposefulness and devotion. Olin believed the natives, who were generally good-natured and appreciative, desperately needed her help, and there is the sense that for Olin, doing her work as well as possible was its own reward. As a result, she made light of her difficult situation: "I am well though often I feel cross, so presume I am not living in such repose of mind as I ought to. Can't you give me a sure recipe for keeping sweet tempered? I assure [you] I need one. Only I might do the way the natives do with the medicines we give them -- take a dose or two, and finding no great improvement, stop taking it" (1907 November 6).

Missionaries commonly thought of native peoples, both children and adult, as playful young innocents, and Olin was no exception: "These folks are just like children," Olin commented. "I wish you could know them, you would enjoy them" (1906 August 20). The islanders and the missionaries had high regard and affection for one another. Olin wrote about giving her students presents on holidays and birthdays, and making gifts if no supplies had arrived. She had many pets, including kittens, a pigeon, and a little wild chicken, which had been presented to her by the natives.

When provoked, Olin was capable of slinging sharp barbs. Her account of the people on board ship when she returned from her furlough to the States is in stark contrast to her fond descriptions of her "charges." There was a senatorial party from the U.S., including Sen. and Mrs. Hill of Connecticut and "many whom I do not care for in the least, among the latter is Miss Alice Roosevelt who ought to have a mother along to take care of her. She impresses me as decidedly loud, in many ways" (1905 July 22).

In 1902 the 50th anniversary of the missions on Kusaie was celebrated. The island people built the missionaries a small house and prepared a feast. 188 men were needed to carry all the food: breadfruit, taro, pork, pigeon, fwa fwa (which the men had made from breadfruit), sugar cane, corn beef and bread. Foods also occasionally available on the island included, bananas, papaya, coconuts, b'abai, eels, crabs, and clams. Once the school children caught 200 fish by poisoning the water deep down with a native vine that caused the fish to surface and be easily caught. Although the fish died from the poison, the people who ate the fish were not affected. The missionaries also had some livestock, including a milk cow, chickens, and pigs. Staples such as flour, beans, rice, potatoes, peanuts, raisins, and canned goods were all imported.

Even if food was plentiful, it could perish quickly in the face of the elements. After a cyclone had caused starvation on nearby islands, Olin put the islands' plight in perspective by alluding to the ongoing Russian famine: "I could not sleep after reading it. Starvation is so much worse when you are cold also . . . . When will the poor Russians get their rights?" (1907 June 25) Continual dampness also made it difficult to preserve food and even seed. Supplies from the States were equally unreliable, for it could take over a year from the date they were ordered for them to actually arrive.

In December 1903, Olin, eighteen girls from her school, and seventeen Marshall Islands boys, plus others, set out for an adventurous tour of the Marshall Islands on the Vine. There were five staterooms for forty-six people. The purpose was to visit other missions, replace the staff in some missions, and enable the young people who had been attending school at Kusaie to visit their homes. While on the islands, new members were admitted to the church, baptisms and marriages were performed, and other passengers were landed or added to the company on board. Seas were very rough, decks and staterooms were inundated often, cargo shifted to and fro, people got seasick and provisions were inadequate. The captain had to be kept from drinking at sea and from upsetting the natives on shore. The ship was too small for the many passengers and gear was old and needed repairs and replacements frequently.

The missions usually had a medical doctor and his family, but no dentist was available. More serious illnesses and dental problems required trips to Hong Kong, Sydney, or a return to the States. The excessive rainfall at Kusaie (24 ft. of rain per year) made malaria a constant threat. In 1909 Miss Olin went to Hong Kong to have her remaining teeth removed and plates made, taking the precaution of getting two sets. She also was fitted for new glasses, for hers had been broken awhile before. While in Hong Kong she also shopped for clothes, materials for sewing shoes, furniture, and of course, provisions. Olin noted that they "do not usually catch cold from the weather down here but have regular importation of influenza everytime the steamer comes, and then everybody on the island takes it" (1907 June 25).

The missionaries were not the only white people on the islands. The traders, responsible for importing goods and influenza, also interfered with the local flow of life. The King in Lelu, the village where the natives had built a small house and a church for Olin, made problems for his people and for the missionaries. "The King is getting old and is puffed up with a sense of his own importance, which the trader helps to puff," Olin reported (1907 November 6). In addition to these transients, there were several men who had settled there, including "6 white men on the island stayed from the Horatio," who married natives, although the English and the Germans had some marriage laws and restrictions, and the missionaries were far from enthusiastic about such unions (1899 April 15). In March 1910, Olin wrote of the pressing need to visit other islands. "It will be far from a pleasure trip. If there were no one but natives to run up against it would be all right, but white folks have a way of making things uncomfortable for one another sometimes. I wish it were not so, it is not a very flattering remark to make about white folks, but really, natives are generally easier to get along with. I wonder if you will think I have been quarreling with all my associates. I have not, really, but am quite peaceable at present" (1910 March 21)

All through the years there was worry about the future of the missions, questions of consolidating, having one mission on one island only, joining the Germans, who had an effective missionary program (the island was German territory), coping with inadequate funds for supplies, ships, and lumber for buildings. The disastrous earthquake in San Francisco was one of the factors involved in the decision to keep the school in Kusaie, "for lumber and vessels to bring it down have risen to twice their former price" (1907 January 16). In 1906 only two missionaries were left to care for twelve young students from the Giebero Islands and thirty from Kusaie. In these lean times, seventy natives brought supplies of food, prepared food, and collected $6.00 for Miss Olin. Olin, pictured here with a group of German missionaries, stated that she would stay and work with the Germans, even if the American Board pulled out.

An epidemic of dysentery broke out on Kusaie in February 1909. At least four people died, and Olin was seriously ill. Once she recovered, her letters focused more on her health; "I have never been so thankful that I am well, as this last year. It certainly is one of the greatest blessings" (1910 March 21). Her recovery might have been only partial, for she succumbed again to illness in 1911. Miss Hoppin wrote to the Turner's on Olin's behalf. "Jenny is very ill and very brave. No one else thinks she will recover . . . . Letters do her so much good though she cannot answer them" (1911 July 15). Hoppin persisted, "I will not let myself quite give up hope. We seem to need her so much in our work" (1911 July 21). Olin died in the latter part of 1911.