01. Manuscripts Collections

Content Description

This collection relates to Daniel Dean Becker who served in the 110th Signal Company, 10th Mountain Division in Italy during World War II. This collection contains a veterans questionnaire and memoir entitled "Memoirs of a Signalman: 110 Signal Company, 10th Mountain Division, Italy World War II."

Content Description

This collection relates to Colonel Walter Carl Beckham who served with the U.S. Army Air Corps as a P-47 fighter pilot with the 353rd Fighter Group in the European Theater of Operations during World War II. He was credited 18 aerial victories. He was shot down and subsequently became a German Prisoner of War. He was the recipient of the Distingquished Service Cross, Distinguished Flying Cross, Silver Star, Air Medal, and Legion of Merit. This collection contains Beckham's medals, badges, pins, photographs, veteran's items, and newspaper articles.

Content Description

Motion picture films documenting the productions of Beckley Films, Inc of Bradenton, Florida.

Scope and Contents

This collection relates to the Utah Beehive Chapter of the Merchant Marine veterans' organization who served during World War II. The collection contains various documents and photographs related to veterans of this chapter.

Scope and Contents

This collection contains a three-page letter by Edwin Pugsley that gives some background on Senator William White and Abraham Bellamy, both of Monticello, Florida, principals of the duel, and a detailed description of the "English Duelling Pistols" chosen by them. Also, how Mr. Pugsley came into possession of the information about the historic duel and of the pistols.

The pistols, still in Mr. Pugsley's possession as of the writing of the letter in 1958, are illustrated in a little book Famous guns from famous collections by H. W. Bowman.

Scope and Contents

Addresses delivered by former Florida Circuit Judge Ben C. Willis and an article written by Willis for the Florida Heritage Foundation News and Views. These materials are useful to researchers studying Tallahassee life during the 1930s. According to Lee Willis, these addresses were probably given at the Exchange Club in Tallahassee, which met at the Cherokee Hotel until it closed.

Includes MSS 2008-021.

Scope and Contents

This collection contains a transcript provided by the Reichelt Program for Oral History. Benjamin Epstein was a Jewish American serviceman who served in the U.S. Army Air Corps from 1942-1946, and he trained at Fort Logan, Colorado. He was transported on the U.S.S. Dorchester, which was torpedoed by a German U-Boat in February 1943. He described escaping from the sinking ship and swimming to one of two lifeboats. He was picked up by the U.S.S. Escambia and taken to Greenland. He remained in Greenland until January 1945 where he was transferred to Fort Totten, New York and remained there until discharged in 1946.

Scope and Contents

This family collection relates to Technician 4th Grade Sergeants Claude B. Shook, 207th Field Artillery Battalion, and Arthur B. Benson, 705th Tank Destroyer Battalion,  who were brother in laws and both served in the U.S. Army during World War II in the European Theater. Arthur B. Benson was killed in action on August 14, 1944. The collection contains letters, photograph negatives, a unit newsletter, ephemera, and diary.

Scope and Contents This collection relates to Technician 5th Grade Norman Conway Benson who served with Company A, 1st Battalion, General Headquarters, United States Army Forces Pacific during World War II. The collection includes the contents of two scrapbooks, letters, government and identification information, and additional photographs during Norman Conway Benson's time serving the Army in the Philippines in 1944 and 1946. The letters and photographs originate from Norman Conway Benson's family, friends, and wartime girlfriend, Barbara Louise Howard. Photographs in the collection include family, friends, and Benson's time spent in the Philippines, Leyte, Luzon, Hollandia, New Guinea, and Canada....

Scope and Contents

This collection relates to Harold W. Benzenberg who served as a Photographer's Mate Third Class, and as a submarine spotter on the U.S. coast in New York and Maryland during World War II. This collection contains Benzenberg's certificate of fitness, honorable discharge papers, dog tags, certificate of satisfactory service, navy training course certificate, selective service system request, notice of separation service, and three photographs.

Scope and Contents

This collection relates to Harold E. Bergman's (Army Counter Intelligence Corps). The collection contains a memoir of his service. He volunteered in December 1939, spent two years in ROTC, and was later assigned as a clerk for Medical Replacement Training Center (MRTC), within the 54th Training Battalion.

Content Description

This collection relates to Sheldon F. Berlow who served with the 352nd Fighter Group, 8th Air Force, as the chief public information officer. This collection contains letters, photographs, newspapers, and official documents from Sheldon F. Berlow's time in England and Belgium. Numerous photographs document the activities of the 352nd Fighter Group. Letters discuss the progress of the war in Europe and life on the homefront.

Content Description

This collection contains Colonel Robert Berry's oral history transcript wherein he describes his involvement in the Normandy invasion and its aftermath as a graves registration officer in the 6th Engineers Special Brigade. The interview also includes accounts of American soldiers being executed for war crimes. This collection contains a transcript Robert Berry's interview from the Reichelt Program for Oral History.

Scope and Contents This collection contains the letters written by Bertha Baldwin while overseas with the American Expeditionary Forces as a dietitian during World War I, 1914-1918. They are addressed to Miss Anna May Tracy, Florida State College for Women and Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida. Some letters are typed and some are manuscript, and were written from Paris, France, but two are written during her travels in the country. "The trip up the Marne" includes what she termed "My first trip east - Oct. 25 - from the Gare de l'Est." In this letter, she states that she traveled with the American Red Cross and "Bien Etre du Blesse," those who care for the...

Scope and Contents

Certification that Bertha Parker Watkins, niece of Benjamin Blount, is elected member of Olustee Chapter of the Florida Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. January 27, 1922.

Scope and Contents

The collection includes stories, serial rights, radio rights and scripts, and lyrics written by Bertie Badger Moyers. The radio and serial rights and scripts form the bulk of the collection and date from the early 1920s. Also included, is one book entitled Motion Picture Studio Directory and Trade Annual, in which there is an entry for Ms. Moyers on page 324.

Scope and Contents This World War II collection relates to Gertrude Margaritte Ivory Bertram, an African American nurse who served in the U.S. Army. The collection consists of letters, photographs (depicting herself and her fellow nurses in uniform, as well as African American G.I.s, and a few photographs from her time in West Africa), personal items, books, manuscripts, newspaper clippings, and interviews. The materials mainly document Bertram's time at Fort Bragg, NC, but there is some information concerning her life before enlistment, travels during enlistment, and life after enlistment. Most of her enlistment was spent in West Africa and at Fort Bragg, NC. This collection is important, as it covers the...

Scope and Contents

This collection contains letters from literary people received when Professor Davis was chairing the English Department Lecture Committee in 1977-1978. Included is the full correspondence with Reed Whittemore. Other correspondents include: Saul Bellow, Frederick Crews, E. L. Doctorow, Tom Stoppard, and Paul Antony Tanner. There are also memos of Bertram Davis and lecture space reservation materials.

Scope and Contents This collection relates to retired U.S. Navy Captain Fred S. Bertsch Jr. who served as the Engineer Officer during World War II in the Pacific Theater of Operations on the destroyer U.S.S. Case and the Korean War as a naval aviator.  The collection includes a daily handwritten log journal of activities aboard the U.S.S Case which begins with his eyewitness account of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, including the attack of the U.S.S. Arizona Battleship, through the end of 1943.  The collection also contains 133 original color slides, and digitized prints of the...

Content Description This collection was compiled by former Florida State University Department of History professor Neil Betten. It contains 41 copies of Congress Weekly: A Review of Jewish Interests from February 1942 to June 1944. This weekly newsletter was published by the American Jewish Congress, which was headed by Stephen Wise. The newsletter includes a column, "News of the Women's Division." The newsletter covered topics such as the Warsaw Ghetto, Jewish soldiers in the U.S. military, Palestine, Zionism, and current issues in the United States and overseas affecting Jews. The collection also contains a Ph.D. dissertation by Peggy G. Pelt, "Wainwright...

Scope and Contents

Betty S. and husband John Gilson were both medical doctors in residence in Cleveland, Ohio until John was called on active duty in the Navy. The letters in this collection were exchanged from 1944-1945 and discuss his experience in the Navy as well has her struggles on the homefront with balancing child care and professional duties while her husband served away in the U.S. Navy.

Scope and Contents This collection of memorabilia of Betty Wood McNabb's career and life consists of scrapbooks, appointment books, articles, and 2 framed, boxed collections of objects such as medals, pins, charms, and other items. Scrapbooks, dated from 1950-1989 with photos of family, friends, cats, dogs, airplanes, and boats; correspondence from friends and family, including letters, postcards, Christmas, birthday, anniversary, get well, and thank you cards; newspaper articles written by her; and certificates of recognition and awards she received.Newspapers McNabb contributed to included: Albany Herald 1951-61; Albany Journal 1958-70; Atlanta Constitution 1962; Boston Globe 1990; Chicago...

Scope and Contents

This collection contains papers and artifacts collected by Billy Thomas Miner, who served during World War II as a Pharmacist's Mate, 1st Class, U.S.Navy. Miner's service brought him honors such as the Marine Expeditionary Force Ribbon, Point System, Victory Medal World War II, Presidential Unit Citation, Navy Good Conduct Medal, and Asiatic Pacific Medal with 4-Stars.

The collection includes Miners' uniform, metals, ribbons, his newspaper collection, photographs, and his personal papers. It also includes various Japanese artifacts, such as a Senninbari, cloth items, plates, military papers, and manuals.

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of a three page handwritten biography of J.T. Bernard (born August 20, 1829-died 1909).

Content Description

This collection relates to Archie William Birchwood who served with the U.S. Coast Guard as a border patrolman and the U.S. Merchant Marines during World War II. With the Coast Guard, Birchwood searched for illegal immigrants along the Coast of Florida between Miami and Pensacola. This collection includes an oral history transcript and supporting documents including radio licenses, salary, and a merchant passport.

Scope and Contents

The Bird and Ulmer papers consist of photocopies of correspondence, land deeds, tax papers, political and other speeches, resolutions, and papers pertaining to church, lodges, last will, accounts of executors of estates, reports of estate, division of land, and division of slaves with values assigned. These papers pertain chiefly to the plantations of Bunker Hill, Nacossa, and Freelawn, which flourished before the Civil War. The majority of the papers are dated from the 1850s through the late 1800s, although a handful are from the 1920s.

Also known as MSS 0-20.

Scope and Contents

This oral history interview transcript relates to the life experiences of Catherine Black, an American woman who grew up in the Great Depression and came of age during World War II. Black recounts growing up during the Great Depression, graduating college, her life on the home front, and her life after the war. She discusses raising a child when her husband was at war, living in Arkansas near a Japanese internment camp, becoming a early widow after the war, her remarrige, and her second husband's experiences as a B17 Bomber Pilot during the War.

Scope and Contents

This collection relates to Henry Fremont Blake who served in the United States Navy in the Pacific Theater as a Store Keeper 2nd Class during World War II aboard the U.S.S. Tyrrell (AKA-80).  The collection includes personal items and artifacts.

Abstract

This collection includes the proceedings of the annual Blue Ridge Institute, presentations that were not part of the proceedings but were presented at the Institute, programs, invitations, invitation lists, correspondence, background material, photographs and various related materials, including audio tapes and video tapes.

Scope and Contents

Cecil Blumenstein (served 1943-1945) discusses his experiences in the 13th Armored Division in Germany in the winter and spring of 1945. Blumenstein was captured and spent a brief period of time in a POW camp before being liberated and sent back to the front. He fought in several engagements. This collection consists of an interview transcript.