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The Aronson-Grant papers contain correspondence, financial records, photographs, and ephemera related to Calvin Aronson and his wife, Pearl Goldblatt (later Grant) Aronson.

The Aronson-Grant papers contain correspondence, financial records, photographs, and ephemera related to Calvin Aronson and his wife, Pearl Goldblatt (later Grant) Aronson.

The Correspondence series, which comprises the bulk of the collection, mostly consists of letters addressed to Pearl Goldblatt between 1921 and 1934, as well as some letters that she wrote to her husband. The letters reveal much about the couple's personal life and relationship, including Aronson's joyful reaction after hearing that Goldblatt had accepted his marriage proposal (February 14, 1924). Pearl Goldblatt Aronson tended to use her adopted surname, "Grant," in her later letters. In contrast to the couple's courtship correspondence, many letters by Grant's friends hint at marital difficulties between Aronson and Grant, including a brief threat of divorce. Some items have enclosures such as drawings and the couple's wedding certificate (February 26, 1927), and one letter is on stationery with the caption "Shh- Mr. Aronson is in deep thought" (April 6, 1926). Three letters enclose photographs (July 16, 1924; August 3, 1924; and May 14, 1929). Many of the postcards within the series have pictures of scenes in Europe.

The Business and Financial Papers series (57 items) contains receipts, bills, cancelled checks, and other items pertaining to the Aronsons' fiscal affairs, including their accounts with the Mechanics' Bank in Brooklyn, New York.

Most of the Photographs (61 items) show scenes around Como, Italy, and several are pictures of young women posing near water and in rowboats.

The Printed Items and Ephemera series contains greeting cards, newspaper clippings, invitations, calling cards, programs, and other items. The newspaper clippings concern politics, playwrights, and human interest stories. Other items include a printed map of the "Harbour of Nassau" and Act IV of Will Shakespeare, a play by Clemence Dane.

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.

This collection is made up of 77 postcards that Bernard Eckloff wrote to his family in Washington, D.C., while stationed at Camp Lee, Virginia, between September 1918 and March 1919, as well as 1 postcard addressed to George F. Harbin of Washington, D.C. Eckloff discussed his experiences in camp and his visits to nearby Petersburg.

This collection is made up of 77 postcards that Bernard Eckloff wrote to his family in Washington, D.C., while stationed at Camp Lee, Virginia, between September 3, 1918, and March 17, 1919, as well as 1 postcard addressed to George F. Harbin of Washington, D.C. Eckloff wrote to his mother Catherine and his siblings Genevieve, Thomas and Mary about his trip to Virginia and aspects of his life at Camp Lee. He discussed his participation in drill exercises, his work in the camp kitchen, and the influenza epidemic; he also mentioned his correspondence and listed the contents of the care packages he received. His postcard of September 13, 1918, contains a description of a new uniform, and his postcard of November 22, 1918, includes a satirical poem entitled "In Line." After the Armistice, Eckloff often wrote about his trips to Petersburg, Virginia, and his attempts to apply for a discharge. One item is a postcard to George F. Harbin of Washington, D.C., from Martin & Allardyce in Asbury Park, New Jersey, regarding a family engraving the firm recently acquired and wished to sell (January 25, 1919).

This collection contains 27 letters and 1 postcard that Private Earl H. Hobson wrote to his wife Maybell while serving at Camp Devens, Massachusetts, and in France during World War I, as well as 1 letter that he wrote to his mother-in-law, Harriet A. Kingsley. In addition to describing his experiences while working behind the front with the 301st Ammunition Train, he reacted to news of his wife's pregnancy and shared his excitement about fatherhood.

This collection contains 27 letters and 1 postcard that Private Earl H. Hobson wrote to his wife Maybell while serving at Camp Devens, Massachusetts, and in France during World War I, as well as 1 letter that he wrote to his mother-in-law, Harriet A. Kingsley. In addition to describing his experiences while working behind the front with the 301st Ammunition Train, he reacted to news of his wife's pregnancy and shared his excitement about fatherhood.

Hobson wrote his first letter on illustrated stationery from Camp Devens, Massachusetts, shortly before embarking for France in July 1918, and sent Maybell a printed form postcard announcing his safe arrival in mid-August. He composed his remaining letters while serving with the 301st Ammunition Train near Montrichard, France, between August and December 1918, and while working for a classification camp in Saint-Aignan-des-Noyers between December 1918 and February 1919. He commented on aspects of military life in France, including his visits to the Y.M.C.A. He also described the scenery, weather, and some of the differences between life in France and in the United States. After the armistice, he shared his disappointment that he had not been sent to the front before the end of the war.

In September 1918, Hobson received news that Maybell was pregnant, and many of his later letters reflect his thoughts about fatherhood. He expressed his joy about the prospect of becoming a father and the ways the news affected him. After receiving a letter from his mother-in-law that Maybell had lost the baby in early 1919, he attempted to provide consolation and support (February 27, 1919). Hobson transferred to a classification camp by 1919, one of the last stops for American soldiers leaving France for the United States. He discussed aspects of the discharge process and expressed hopes that he would be returning home soon.

This collection contains around 80 letters that Sergeant Frank D. Jonas wrote to his parents and siblings in Brooklyn, New York, while serving with Company B of the 326th Tank Corps during World War I. Jonas described his training at Camp Upton, New York, and at Camp Colt and Camp Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania, between February and September 1918, and discussed his experiences in England and in Bourg and St. Laurent, France, between October 1918 and April 1919. The collection also includes letters that Jonas received from other soldiers, as well as letters Jonas's brothers Robert and Richard wrote about their experiences in the military.

This collection contains around 80 letters that Sergeant Frank D. Jonas wrote to his parents and siblings in Brooklyn, New York, while serving with the Company B of the 326th Tank Corps at Camp Upton, New York; at Camp Colt and Camp Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania; and in Bourg and St. Laurent, France, during World War I. The collection also includes letters that Jonas received from other soldiers and letters by Jonas's brothers Robert and Richard.

The bulk of the Correspondence series is comprised of letters from Frank D. Jonas to his parents and siblings, usually addressed to his mother. While in training at Fort Slocum and Camp Upton, New York, in early 1918, he described his clothing, equipment, daily routine, and other soldiers. In late March 1918, Jonas transferred to the newly established Camp Colt near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where he became a member of Company B of the 326th Tank Corps and, later, a signal sergeant. In his letters to his family, Jonas mentioned training exercises such as hikes, drilling, and signaling classes; he also encouraged his brother Richard ("Dick") to enlist. After arriving in Europe around October 1918, Jonas wrote a letter about his transatlantic journey; he later commented on his surroundings and on soldiers' accommodations in France.

After the war, Jonas served in Bourg and St. Laurent, France, where he discussed the possibility of returning home. Two of his letters contain enclosures: a newspaper clipping with photographs of French tanks and wounded Canadian soldiers (September 19, 1918) and photographic negatives of a soldier in uniform (May 23, 1918). Several of Jonas's letters are written on YMCA or Tank Corps stationery, and he also sent his family a Christmas card, and received a postcard depicting a group of soldiers.

Jonas received 2 letters from Sergeant Edward A. Fargo, Jr., who served in Germany in 1919; 1 letter from a marine serving at Paris Island, South Carolina; and 1 letter from Sergeant Harry E. Wildner. His brothers Richard ("Dick") and Robert ("Bob") also wrote several letters about their own experiences in the military.

The Tank Drill Regulations series contains one 3-page document outlining the procedures and signals during tank units' drill exercises.

The Louis Miller WWI exhibit materials collection is comprised of visual materials and realia displayed in an exhibit to mark the centennial of the Armistice in the autumn of 2018. The bulk of the materials pertain to the American Expeditionary Forces in the First World War.

The Louis Miller WWI exhibit materials collection contains visual materials and realia displayed in an exhibit to mark the centennial of the Armistice in the autumn of 2018. The bulk of the materials pertain to the American Expeditionary Forces in the First World War.

The largest part of the collection is postcards and ephemera belonging to Ole Reppe, a Wisconsin soldier who served in the 32nd Division. There are fifty-six postcards, four typewritten pages, and one ticket stub. The postcards date from 1917-1919, and follow Reppe's service in the Wisconsin National Guard and American Expeditionary Forces.

Eight postcards show scenes from Camp Douglas, Wisconsin. Two of these have inscriptions written by Reppe from August 1917 that describe the images. Two more date from 1920, with messages from his future wife Clara, and his mother. Both of these are written in Norwegian. Two postcards depict Janesville, Wisconsin.

Thirteen postcards show military training at an unidentified location. Six postcards date from Reppe's time in Texas in 1917, including a real photo postcard of an unidentified couple with a handwritten caption by Reppe that reveals he found this photograph on the street. This seems to reveal that unlike other WWI soldiers who took home postcards from France as souvenirs, Reppe was already collector before going overseas.

Five postcards date from Reppe's time in France, including one real photo postcard of German soldiers and women. Reppe notes that he found two of these postcards on the battlefield in October 1918, and German soldiers originally owned them. The remaining twenty-two postcards contain images of Koblenz (Coblenz), presumably purchased by Reppe while in the Army of Occupation in 1919.

Four typewritten military documents are in the collection, and date from August 27, 1917 to May 23, 1919. Two of these are leave passes, one is a list of men on guard duty, and one is a memorandum about sanitation at Camp Douglas. These items were all mounted on scrapbook paper, and it appears that Reppe kept these and some of his postcards in a now disbound scrapbook.

There is also a train ticket from 1917 from Stanley, Wisconsin to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin.

Also included in the collection is a British Lusitania Medal from 1916, with its original box and a paper fragment providing context to the medal. The sinking of the Lusitania by a German U-boat on May 7, 1915, caused the deaths of 1,198 passengers and crew, including 128 Americans. Although Germany protested it had every right to treat the Lusitania as an enemy vessel, the incident led to outrage in the United States and Britain. The medal in the collection is a British copy of a German medal made by the artist Karl Goetz after the incident. Though Goetz had intended his medal as a satire of British outrage over the Lusitania, the British disseminated over 300,000 translated copies of Goetz's work for English-speaking audiences. In spite of the misleading British description of the medal, the damage done by this piece of propaganda led to German authorities confiscating all known copies of the original medal. The German policy of unrestricted submarine warfare, which ended in September 1915 in response to American outrage over the Lusitania, started back up in early 1917 and became a major factor in America's entry into the war.

A 2018 restrike of Kerr Eby's "A Southern Unit" print from the original copper plate is also present. Canadian-American artist Kerr Eby created this powerful image representing the downtrodden state of African-American soldiers in France. Eby's service in the AEF turned him into an ardent pacifist. When America again entered a global conflict in 1941, Eby served in the combat artists program, mainly in the Pacific. He died in 1946 at his home in Norwalk, Connecticut, from a tropical disease contracted while covering the Second World War.

The collection has a photograph of Rosa Heidler Lorenz at the grave of her son Joseph Lorenz, at Suresnes, France, on May 18, 1930. In 1929, after a decade of political debate, President Calvin Coolidge signed a bill allocating five million dollars to subsidize pilgrimages to Europe for the mothers of deceased American soldiers buried overseas. In all, some 6,000 women chose to take the two-week trip to visit their sons' graves. These trips are known as the Gold Star Mothers Pilgrimages, and took place between 1930-1933. In a sad echo of the discrimination African-American soldiers faced more than a decade earlier, African-American mothers were segregated from their white counterparts during their pilgrimages. A significant number of mothers who went overseas were foreign-born and included many Germans. Rosa Heidler Lorenz was one such German immigrant. Her son, Private First Class Joseph Lorenz, was wounded in late July while fighting with the 42nd Division before dying of his wounds at a base hospital on November 21, 1918. In late May 1930, newspapers across the country published this moving image of Lorenz weeping at the grave of her son.

The collection contains a wooden clog painted with an American and French flag, with the inscription, "Souvenir de France." These clogs were a popular type of souvenir that soldiers often sent home to their families. Also included is a printed piece of sheet music from 1917 for the song "Hail! Hail! The Gang's All Here" and a copy of the printed exhibit bulletin from 2018.

The Raymond family travel and portrait photograph album contains approximately 315 items (including photographic prints and illustrated postcards) related to the family, acquaintances, and travels of Francis J. Raymond, Jr., of St. Louis, Missouri.

The Raymond family travel and portrait photograph album contains approximately 315 items (including photographic prints and illustrated postcards) related to the family, acquaintances, and travels of Francis J. Raymond, Jr., of St. Louis, Missouri. The album (25 x 34 cm) has black cloth pages and is largely disbound. The majority of photographs have printed or typewritten captions. Many images are posed individual and group portraits of men, women, and children wearing fashionable clothing in a variety of settings, including on porches, patios, indoors, and beside trains. Several photographs appear to have been taken at the Antler Hotel in Colorado Springs, Colorado, over a number of years, including images taken of a children's party on the hotel lawn replete with a group of Native American performers wearing war bonnets and carrying drums. Francis Raymond, Jr., is also shown visiting Charles L. Raymond and family in Detroit, as well as the Keelyn family and other friends in Los Angeles and Riverside, California. Other images show a golf outing; numerous cats and other animals; attractions in Colorado Springs, including the Cheyenne Mountain Lodge; scenes from Hawaii, including colored commercial prints of Mt. Muana Loa and a portrait of "Phillip Abdul" playing a ukelele on a Honolulu beach; several photographic silhouettes; a beach scene at Northport Point, Michigan; and a cottage at Topinbee, Michigan. Laid in images include two photographs of children's parties in 1917 and 1919, and two family groups from the same period.

Papers of a Y.M.C.A. volunteer depicting events following the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, POW camps in Germany, and relief work among Russian refugees in 1920-1924.

Correspondence of Howard Merrill and some of his wife Edith Merrill with relatives in the United States while stationed and traveling in Russia, Poland, Germany, Latvia, Estonia, Sweden, and --to a lesser extent-- Japan describing social, economic and political conditions, everyday life, and work of the Y.M.C.A. offices and volunteers in these countries. Merrill travelled and wrote about locations in Siberia, Moscow, Petrograd, Pskov, Archangel, Nizhnii Novgorod, Samara, Riga, among other locations.

Correspondence and Y.M.C.A. reports from Germany contain depiction of conditions in German prisoner-of-war camps and Russian prisoners. Russian-language handwritten publications of Russian POWs include playbills and illustrated newsletters.

Papers of Donald A. Lowrie, Y.M.C.A. secretary who served in Russian and Eastern Europe between 1916 and 1932 include his 1920 "Moscow diary" and miscellaneous writings on the subject of Russian prisoners of war.

This collection is made up of 42 letters that Robin Whitfield wrote to his girlfriend and future wife, Tacey Barnett of Clarksville and Nashville, Tennessee, from 1917-1921. He wrote of his experiences at Camp Dodge, Iowa, and Brest, France, during World War I, and commented on his life in Clarksville after the war.

This collection is made up of 42 letters that Robin Whitfield wrote to his girlfriend and future wife, Tacey Barnett of Clarksville and Nashville, Tennessee, from 1917-1921. He wrote of his experiences at Camp Dodge, Iowa, and Brest, France, during World War I, and commented on his life in Clarksville after the war.

Whitfield wrote 2 letters from Clarksville in 1917; 17 letters and postcards from Camp Dodge, Iowa, from June 1918-August 1918; 1 letter from Camp Upton, New York, in September 1918; 1 letter from Camp President Lincoln in Brest, France, in June 1919; 2 postcards immediately after his return to the United States in late 1919; and 17 letters from Clarksville from April 1920-September 1921. Two additional letters from Clarksville are undated. At Camp Dodge, Whitfield joined the 804th Pioneer Infantry Regiment, an African American unit. He commented occasionally on the attractiveness of local women (August 14, 1918) and about his fondness for the shooting range (September 20, 1918), but most often he discussed his social activities and his relationship with Barnett. After his return to Clarksville, he continued to write about their relationship and upcoming visits. The collection's postcards include a photographic postcard depicting trench warfare ([July 8, 1918]), a photographic postcard showing Camp Dodge ([July 22, 1918]), 2 postcards with short poems about friendships and relationships ([July 30, 1918] and [October 28, 1919]), and one postcard bearing a logo from the YMCA Troop Train Service ([October 9, 1919]).

This collection primarily consists of letters written by Captain Joseph Carson during his service with the United States Army's Ordnance Department in France from 1918 to 1919. Additional material includes letters written to Carson by his father, Hampton L. Carson, and by several of his friends. Carson wrote about army life in France during the last stages of the war and in the months immediately following the Armistice.

This collection primarily consists of letters written by Captain Joseph Carson during his service with the United States Army's Ordnance Department in France from 1918 to 1919. The first item in the collection is "Excerpts from Dr. Willard's Letter" (three typed pages) dated June 3, 1917, in which the doctor described a visit to London that included tours of several military hospitals. Carson's letters, written between his arrival in France in September 1918 and his departure for the United States in February 1919, are addressed to his mother, father, wife, and daughter, Sarah Whelen Carson (a single letter, dated November 6, 1918). He described the scenery and wrote of his work in the army, far behind the front lines. On November 6, 1918, he drew a small map of his location at a military post, and in a separate letter of the same date enclosed a photograph. In mid-November, he reflected on the armistice and on local celebrations, and looked forward to returning home early the following year. His post-armistice letters are dated from Tours, France, and include discussions of courts martial held in mid-January 1919. In addition to his outgoing correspondence, the collection holds a handful of incoming letters Carson received from his father, Hampton Lawrence Carson, and from other acquaintances, as well as a typed poem entitled "Richard C. Nevil" (November 30, 1918). Also included is a postcard to Carson's wife from Edward P. Hamilton of the 306th Field Artillery Regiment, which depicts the Palace of Fontainebleau (January 3, 1918).