01. Manuscripts Collections

Scope and Contents

Saul Alpern’s oral history transcript describes in detail his experiences growing up in Romania before World War II, the beginning of the war, listening to Adolf Hitler on the radio, life in labor camps, forced marches, hiding during the war, anti-Semitism, liberation, Zionist youth organizations, and his memoir.

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The collection of Alvin Dinsmore White consists of three letters and a V-mail written by Army officer Jim White of the 42nd "Rainbow" Infantry Division during World War II.  Also, in the collection is a news article and email describing his two other family members' actions during the war. Fort Benning, Georgia, and Rotenberg, Austria are the two discernible locations where Jim wrote his letters.

Content Description

This collection includes miscellaneous materials collected from numerous sources by Michael Amdahl, a Refuse Transfer Center worker who collected and donated found materials over the course of many years. Included in this collection are a variety of graphic materials, letters, documents, magazines, and a book on the 13th Air Force. Also included are photographs depicting war-torn cities, soldier life, sea and air vessels, and scenery from around Europe.

Abstract

Annual reports, committee files, correspondence, membership files, president's files, scrapbooks, photographs, yearbooks, and memorabilia.

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Pamphlet entitled "Constitution and by-laws of the Anaxagorean Literary Society, Tallahassee Florida, 1901." It bears the signature of A. A. Murphree, President of the West Florida Seminary at that time.

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This collection relates to Private First Class Clarence H. Anderson who served with the 41st Armored Infantry Regiment, 2nd Armored Division, in the European theater during World War II. The collection contains letters from Anderson to his fiance Eleanor Schumaker. The letters encompass ten months from March 1944-January 1945 in which he writes from England, France, Belgium, and Germany. Clarence was wounded in Germany and sent to a hospital in England to recover. Julius Sleszak was stationed in California in the Transportation Section at Camp Beale. He sent seven letters to his wife during November 1945.

Scope and Contents

Newspaper articles, publications, interviews, and notes collected and created by author Devery Anderson during research for publications on Emmett Till, including his 2015 monograph Emmett Till: The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement.

Online Copies Available

Select materials from the Devery Anderson Papers have been digitized and are available through the FSU Digital Library.

Scope and Contents This collection pertains to Oliver “Bud” Anderson who served as a Ship Fitter Second Class aboard the USS Clifton (IX-184) during World War II. The collection contains letters Anderson sent to his mother, father, and brother Nolan while stationed in various locations in the United States, Australia, New Guinea, the Philippines, and Japan. Anderson's letters discuss mail, his high school sweetheart, Indigenous peoples, weather, entertainment, a furlough, rationing, and training. His government documents, several menus, and reflections from 2000 on his war experiences are also included. The collection also includes letters Anderson’s brother-in-law, Boyd...

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This collection relates to Private First Class Richard E. Anderson who served with Company L, 381st Infantry Regiment, 96th Infantry Division, during World War II in the Philippine Islands and Okinawa. The collection includes a letter, memoir, and newspaper clippings.

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Photocopy of memoir that tells about the two Andres brothers' family episodes following their answer to an advertisement "Ten acres and freedom" which offered property for sale in Florida, from their arrival in Fort McCoy, Florida, in the fall of 1914 and the years following. An index of persons in the memoirs is included in the collection, along with seven photographs.

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The collection consists of books, with corresponding manuscripts, galleys and artwork related to each book. The books are accompanied by different versions of manuscripts, and both author's and editor's galleys, along with layout sketches and early drawings for each book.

Scope and Contents

Commonplace book with gold tooling and metal clasps, with handwritten text in French and English.

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This collection consists of the 174 page typescript draft with handwritten edits of The Men around Hurley, dating June 22 to July 2, 1931, by Annie Louise Blackwell.

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The Anson E. Voorhees collection contains one folder with a 14-page typed transcript of an oral history interview.

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This collection contains a manuscript memoir of Anthony Catalino's WWII service in the U.S. Army Field Artillery and staff work at Army hospitals and supply depots in North Africa and Italy.

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This collection relates to Fred and Lucille Anton. Fred Anton served with the United States Marine Corps during World War II and China after World War II. This collection contains letters sent between Lucille and Fred Anton, also containing a few photographs.

Scope and Contents This collection consists of the business records from the Apalachicola Tent and Awning Company once located in Apalachicola, Florida. The company manufactured pyramidal tents under contract from the United States Army from early 1941 to at least October 1942. The records are unclear as to when the company ceased operations. J.H. Hodges, Sr. owned the building that housed the company from 1935 until 1951. The records reflect a wide range of day to day operations including ordering raw materials, sending and receiving invoices, tracking orders, requests for information, correspondence with the Federal Government including bids, rating certificates and other needs of the...

Scope and Contents Private First Class Jack Appel's oral history transcript details his life before and during World War II where he served with the 17th Signal Operations Battalion in the United States Army in the European Theater of Operations. His oral history elaborates on his early life, contracting Spinal Meningitis, completing basic training, trying to apply to Officer Candidate School, becoming a driver/messenger, arriving in Europe, landing at Normandy, traveling through France Belgium, and Germany, witnessing Battle of the Bulge, visiting the concentration camp Buchenwald, interacting with civilians, gambling on leave, the discharge point system, returning home, and his experiences with...

Scope and Contents

William J. Arlet served with the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. This collection includes photographs and documents related to William J. Arlet. This collection also includes captured Japanese photographs, which were acquired in 1943 on Guadacanal, Solomon Islands from a United States Marine who was about to deploy to his next assignment.

Content Description

This collection relates to Technical Sergeant James A. Armstrong who served 691st Ordnance Company in the European Theater of Operation. He participated beginning with the Normandy Campaign and each subsequent campaign with the company through to Germany. After the war, he was also commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant Ammunition Supply Officer and assigned to the 633rd Ordnance Company. The collection contains letters, military documents, and photographs.

Content Description

This collection relates to Lyle D. Armstrong and his service in the U.S. Army during World War II in the Pacific Theater of Operations. The collection contains a veteran’s questionnaire where he shares his experience in service and recalls a memory of being in Manila when the Japanese Envoys came to speak to General MacArthur. He also mentions that he kept in contact with some of the men he met in service. The collection also contains photographs of Armstrong and his three older brothers, who also served in World War II.

Scope and Contents This collection includes a United States Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas Intelligence Information Bulletin on Okinawa, dated 15 November 1944. It also includes a U.S. Naval Training School (Hollywood Beach Hotel, Hollywood, Florida) graduation class 4-44 yearbook entitled "The Quarterdeck," dated 21 July 1944.  Other content includes Thanksgiving and Christmas 1945 dinner menus for U.S. troops in Samar, Philippines. Class photographs included int he collection are from Landing Craft School, A.T.B. Coronado, CA, as well as, Naval training class photographs. The collection also contains photograph album pages...

Scope and Contents This collection includes letters written to Arnold Busch, a basketball coach for Calvary Methodist Church in Lakewood, Ohio, by the students he previously coached. Whether drafted or enlisted, many of the men kept up a correspondence with Busch throughout the war years. This collection also includes Calvary Church newsletters and pamphlets, pamphlets regarding persons registered for service, ration books and other rationing documents, and letters returned to Busch because their recipients were MIA, deceased, or relocated. Also included are photographs of Calvary Church activities on the Homefront, the basketball team, and the Calvary Church’s V-J Day service as well as a copy of an...

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of copies of the Ars Poetica pamphlet with information pertaining to the Shaw collection. Subjects of the newsletters include recent acquisitions to the collection, humorous happenings, news related to poetry, and poetry by the author.

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The Arthur and Mayce Seymour Collection, in addition to containing correspondence between them, other family members, and friends, has articles written by the Seymours and many poems by Mayce. A major portion of the collection consists of photographs taken by the Seymours during their trips to India and China in the 1920s. Numerous paintings and sketches made by Mayce during these travels are also included.

Scope and Contents This collection includes several different types of documents that refer to the attack on the American 106th Division in St. Vith, Germany on December 16, 1944. The attack on the 422nd, 423rd, and 424th Infantry Regiments of the 106th Division resulted in 8,663 casualties, 416 deaths, 1,246 injuries, and 7,001 soldiers M.I.A. (missing in action).  Pvt. Arthur Eason was captured and transferred to P.O.W. (prisoner of war) camps. Eason was transferred to the Stalag IV B camp in Northeastern Germany. He was among several other POW's from British and Russian battalions. These documents include personal letters, diary entries, official government documents of correspondence, maps, European...

Scope and Contents

The collection relates to Arthur Edwin Brenton who served aboard the USS  Pennsylvania battleship during World War II in the Pacific Campaign as a member of the U.S. Marine Guard.  The collection includes a diary, typed transcript of the diary, personal papers, newspaper clippings, as well as ship's newsletters.

Scope and Contents

Arthur G. Johnson served in a U.S. Navy Construction Battalion (Seabee) from December 1942 through the end of World War II. This collection consists of an oral history interview transcript.

In the transcript, Johnson recounts his experiences from basic training to North Africa, then on to Banica River in the South Pacific, Okinawa and back to Guam where he broke his neck, taking him out of the war. The interview also talks generally about the Seabees, family life after the war, camaraderie with the Marines, and censorship.