World War I Finding Aids

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MS-004: Papers of Frank H. Kramer, Class of 1914

Christine M. Ameduri

The Frank H. Kramer Collection is arranged into six Series. I. Personal Information; II. Organizations, Committees & Events; III. Education Department; IV. Oriental Art; V. Scrapbooks and VI. Miscellaneous. Of special note to researchers are the photo album of campus life in the nineteen-teens, scrapbook of commencement activities between 1939 and 1948 and correspondence from soldiers in camp during WWI.

Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery tools used to describe and provide access to our holdings. Finding aids include historical and biographical information about each collection in addition to inventories of their content. More information about our collections can be found on our website http://www.gettysburg.edu/special_collections/collections/.
MS-019: Donald F. Lybarger Collection, Class of 1919

Christine M. Ameduri

This collection consists of an unbound class memorial which has been kept in its original order. The original letters have been removed for archival preservation and replaced with copies. Almost all letters are written from Gettysburg College students stationed in stateside military training camps between 1917 and 1919 and addressed to Lybarger or "Brothers of Phi Sigma." A scrapbook kept by Lybarger while a student at Gettysburg between 1914-1919 includes photographs, programs, dance cards and other college memorabilia.

Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery tools used to describe and provide access to our holdings. Finding aids include historical and biographical information about each collection in addition to inventories of their content. More information about our collections can be found on our website http://www.gettysburg.edu/special_collections/collections/.
MS-032: Letters of the Toomey Family during World War I

Jaclyn Campbell

The Toomey collection is composed primarily of correspondence and is arranged into four sections including letters to Leo Toomey, Joe Toomey, Mary Ellen Toomey, and other miscellaneous correspondence.

Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery tools used to describe and provide access to our holdings. Finding aids include historical and biographical information about each collection in addition to inventories of their content. More information about our collections can be found on our website http://www.gettysburg.edu/special_collections/collections/.
MS-048: World War I Service Questionnaires

Keith R. Swaney

After the conclusion of the First World War, two distinct entities at Pennsylvania (Gettysburg) College—Professor S. N. Hagen and the Phi Delta Theta fraternity— endeavored to document and commemorate the experiences of the college’s graduates in the First World War.

The first section contains the Phi Delta Theta questionnaires, which the fraternity sent to its alumni to record their participation in the field or on the home front. As the questionnaires note, the historian of the Pennsylvania College chapter wished to use this information in a publication to be entitled the “Karux.”

The second section contains questionnaires that Hagen, a professor of English at the college, sent to alumni in April 1919 to record the nature of their wartime participation. As stated in the introduction of the form, Hagen wanted to “issue a bulletin” with the information gathered from the questionnaires. Series III contains correspondence addressed to Hagen from various alumni of the college throughout May and June of 1919.

Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery tools used to describe and provide access to our holdings. Finding aids include historical and biographical information about each collection in addition to inventories of their content. More information about our collections can be found on our website http://www.gettysburg.edu/special_collections/collections/.
MS-053: Charles D. Ryan, 66th Engineers

Meggan D. Smith

The collection consists primarily of letters from Charles Ryan to Elizabeth Dooling, his wife-to-be. The letters to Elizabeth begin on March 29, 1918 and the final one in the collection is dated June 3, 1919. The only other items in the collection is an envelope addressed to Elizabeth Dooling from Charles Ryan, a newspaper clipping of Ryan’s marriage to Elizabeth, a blank postcard with two soldiers on the front, and a letter to Ryan from the Treasury Department.

Although Ryan briefly mentions significant events, such as Germany being defeated and Italy leaving the Peace Conference, his letters focus largely on the mundane tasks of camp life. He constantly comments on how one never knows what to expect with the army: “here to-day and gone to-morrow,” and continuously asserts, “Sherman was right, ‘War is ----.’” While it may not be extremely helpful to the military historian looking for an individual’s experience in battle, the collection does serve as a window into the soldier’s mind who is bored with the soldier’s life and eager to return home.

Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery tools used to describe and provide access to our holdings. Finding aids include historical and biographical information about each collection in addition to inventories of their content. More information about our collections can be found on our website http://www.gettysburg.edu/special_collections/collections/.
MS-082: Capt. Russell Miller and Claudia Lewis Miller Correspondence, 1916-1919

Amy Sanderson

This collection consists of 297 letters written between Russell Miller and Claudia Miller from Washington in 1916-1919 during their courtship and marriage before Russell was deployed to Europe during World War I. Almost all letters are attached to their original envelopes with stamps.

Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery tools used to describe and provide access to our holdings. Finding aids include historical and biographical information about each collection in addition to inventories of their content. More information about our collections can be found on our website http://www.gettysburg.edu/special_collections/collections/.
MS-095: John Wright Collection

Kayla Lenkner

This collection consist of letters and postcards received by John Wright between June 1917 and December 1919. Most of the correspondence is addressed to John Wright or the Knoxville Journal, however, some letters are addressed to other people who presumably passed the letters along to Wright for publication in the paper. The collection contains a mixture of letters from soldiers, sailors, cavalry men and officers.
MS-103: Jes Jerry Jessen World War I Letters

Kate Boeree

This collection contains 109 letters written by Jes Jerry Jessen addressed to his family in Spokane, WA, including his mother and father, his brothers George and Ralph, his sister Helen (“La La”) and his aunt Molly between June 6th, 1917 and June 22nd, 1919. These letters follow him through his training in Vancouver, Washington; Charlotte, North Carolina; France; and Germany, where his correspondence ends.

Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery tools used to describe and provide access to our holdings. Finding aids include historical and biographical information about each collection in addition to inventories of their content. More information about our collections can be found on our website http://www.gettysburg.edu/special_collections/collections/.
MS-130: World War I Letters of Henry W. Straus

Devin McKinney

This collection comprises 48 letters from Henry W. Straus to his wife Anna. They were written between June 1918 and March 1919, when Henry, as a U.S. Army medical officer, was serving a British ambulance corps in France. Throughout the letters, Straus addresses his wife with great tenderness and yearning, anticipating their reunion and post-war life. He also displays a progressive attitude with respect to women’s independence, abilities, and right to do useful work.

Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery tools used to describe and provide access to our holdings. Finding aids include historical and biographical information about each collection in addition to inventories of their content. More information about our collections can be found on our website http://www.gettysburg.edu/special-collections/collections/.
MS-147: Lieutenant Andrew R. Kane Letters

Amy E. Lucadamo

This collection is made up of 28 letters sent to Andrew R. Kane of Philadelphia, PA from May 31-July 15, 1918 while he was serving with the 112th Infantry, Company C in France. They were sent by the women in his family: his mother, two sisters, his sister-in-law, and girlfriend. His younger sister, Frances, and girlfriend, Marie wrote most often. Letters reference family and friends in Philadelphia, their pride in Andrew’s service, and their worries about his safety. They express patriotic and religious sentiments. Letters from Andrew’s mother, Mary, contain the most spelling and grammatical errors and letters from his sister-in-law, Margaret have the most challenging handwriting.

Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery tools used to describe and provide access to our holdings. Finding aids include historical and biographical information about each collection in addition to inventories of their content. More information about our collections can be found on our website http://www.gettysburg.edu/special_collections/collections/.
MS-148: John Alexander Kinnear WWI Letters

Dori L. Gorczyca

The letters of John Alexander Kinnear consist of 7 postcards and 92 letters which were written by Kinnear to his family living near Lexington Virginia. The letters range in dates from November of 1916 (before Kinnear joined the service) to May of 1919 (after he arrived home from Europe). The letters are mainly addressed to his mother, Mrs. J. J. L. Kinnear, but there are some that are addressed to his father and siblings.
MS-155: Lt. Francis M. Tompkins World War One Scrapbooks

Amy E. Lucadamo

Francis M. Tompkins created three scrapbooks with images and materials that he collected during his service in WWI from 1917-1920. Most of the images are official army photographs printed on postcard stock. They are labeled on the image and sometimes dated. Additionally, Tompkins provides detailed descriptions of the locations, battles, individuals, and views pictured in the photographs. He describes the movements of the 305th Engineers and the tasks they performed in each location, often building bridges to allow for the movement of soldiers and equipment.

Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery tools used to describe and provide access to our holdings. Finding aids include historical and biographical information about each collection in addition to inventories of their content. More information about our collections can be found on our website http://www.gettysburg.edu/special_collections/collections/.
MS-232: Edward A Frederick Papers

Joy Zanghi

This collection is a small collection mostly comprised of postcards written by Edward A. Frederick to his family. The postcards follow Frederick from his training with the Aero Squadron in San Antonio Texas at Kelly Field to his service overseas in the UK and France. The collection also contains photographs, a newspaper clipping, and a ring and pins from the US Aero Squadron. Overall, the postcards and the collection as a whole do not provide much insight or detail about the life of a soldier during WWI.

Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery tools used to describe and provide access to our holdings. Finding aids include historical and biographical information about each collection in addition to inventories of their content. More information about our collections can be found on our website http://www.gettysburg.edu/special_collections/collections/.