Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

The Michigan Historical Collections Polar Bear Expedition Photograph Collection includes images relating to the American intervention in north Russia, 1918-1919, the "Polar Bear Expedition." The provenance of most of the photographs has been lost and therefore these images have been grouped together by subject into an artificial accumulation.

The photographs in this collection were received from various sources, the provenance of most of the photographs has been lost and therefore these images have been grouped together by subject into an artificial accumulation. The digitized Polar Bear Expedition photograph collection is a part of a larger collection which includes a wide range of subject matter. The 24 images relating to the "Polar Bear Expedition" include photographs and postcards depicting various scenes, events, and individuals. Identified individuals include Private Walter Streit of Company M, 339th Infantry and General Richardson (W. P. Richardson?), as well as various photographs of Russian people. The collection also includes photographs of Company M, 339th Infantry and the 339th Infantry Supply Company and a photograph of a marker for Company H, 339th Infantry soldiers killed in action. Russian places documented in these photographs include Murmansk, Tegra, Archangel, Konetsbor, and the Vologda Railway.

Detroit attorney, assistant U. S. Prosecutor at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East following World War II; correspondence and official court materials largely relating to Japanese intervention in Manchuria; materials relating to service in Polar Expedition to northern Russian during World War I; miscellaneous papers relating to other political and legal activities; and photographs.

The Walter McKenzie Collection consists largely of materials created as a result of the Japanese War Crimes Trials. The collection has been arranged into eight series: Biographical/Personal; Correspondence; Articles, Speeches, etc.; International Military Tribunal for the Far East, International Prosecution Section; University of Michigan; World War I (Polar Bear Expedition); Miscellaneous; and Photographs.

"The 337th field hospital in north Russia, 1918-1919," a reminiscence of a soldier in the Allied intervention in Russia, 1918-1920, the "Polar Bear Expedition."

The reminiscence describes his training at Camp Custer, the journey to Russia, the Russian countryside and towns, hospital work in Shenkursk, Ust Vaga and Osinova, fighting at Nijni Gora, Jan. 1919, the evacuation of Shenkursk, Jan. 1919, and his return to the United States. It includes sketch maps of the Dvina-Vaga front and of the battle at Nijni Gora and Ust Padenga, Jan. 19, 1919.

Soldier from Bay City, Mich. who served in the Allied intervention in Russia, 1918-1920, the "Polar Bear Expedition." Collection includes reminiscences and photograph album.

Typescript of a short account of his service in northern Russia, from leaving Camp Custer, July 1918, to his return to the United States, July 1919. The original is owned by Sarah Bonnell, Bay City. The papers also include a post card and a poem "Ode to the Shackleton Boot."

The collection includes an album (1918-1919, ca. 250 photographs) containing scenes of building construction, buildings and fortifications constructed by the 310th Engineers, views of Archangel and other places, pictures of Russian people, scenes of American soldiers in camp and on guard, and portraits of officers of the 310th Engineers; also a group photograph of Co. A, 310th Engineers.

Member of Co. G, 339th U.S. Infantry who served in the Allied intervention in Russia, 1918-1920, the "Polar Bear Expedition" and officer in the Polar Bear Association. Collection includes papers on the committee sent to Russia in 1929, to recover the bodies of men slain during the expedition, including material on their reinterment in White Chapel Memorial Park Cemetery, Troy, Michigan, and the dedication of the Polar Bear monument.

The collection includes a copy of a petition, Feb. 1919, from people in Detroit asking for the withdrawal of American troops from Archangel; a diary, July-Sept. 1929, describing his trip to Russia and the search for bodies; correspondence, 1929-1930, regarding the commission and its work; a list of the bodies recovered and a map showing the location of some bodies found around Kodish; papers relating to the reinterment of the dead in White Chapel Memorial Park Cemetery; a 1965 memoir of the 1929 commission, and two letters, 1966 and undated, from Arthur Wickham relating his memories of service in Archangel. Also included are bulletins, meeting notes, speeches, eulogies, and programs of the Polar Bear Association and the constitution and bylaws of the Polar Bear Post, No. 436, Veterans of Foreign Wars.