01. Manuscripts Collections

Scope and Contents

This collection relates to Harold G. Blunk served as Sergeant Major for the 5th Air Depot Group, 39th Station Composite Squadron, Administrative Division, 35th Depot Repair, in the 8th Air Force Command Station in England from 1943-1945. This collection contains photographs, a newspaper clipping, and documents relating to his personal life and military career.

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Typescript letter, dated June 17, 1981, signed by Bob Graham in which he thanks Mrs. Opal M. Free of the FSU Library for gathering materials for a 2nd Annual history dinner.

Also known as MSS 0-303.

Scope and Contents

Typed autobiographical sketch of Bob Taggart, addressed to "My Dear Jerry." Contains reminiscences of Florida during the 1920s and his acquaintance with Jerry Willams Carter. Letter also covers his life in Texas as a boy and his many adventures throughout his varied careers as a telegraph operator, sailor, soldier, farmer and salesman. Taggart also goes in depth about his experiences serving in both World Wars. 61 pages.

Scope and Contents

This collection contains two oral histories; one with Dr. Philip Gilman, Jr. and one with James Izumizaki. It also includes the reprint of a letter by Pvt. Lavern Borg, Jr. written on April 2, 1945. The letter tells about his experiences with the 5th Marine Division of the U.S. Marine Corp in the battle of Iwo Jima. The next document includes a service record and medallist dated June 1967, January 1969, and August 1973. A pamphlet collected by the Pajaro Valley Arts Council, California entitled Nihen Bunka Japanese Culture: One hundred years in Pajaro Valley is also in the collection.

Scope and Contents

This collection related to Raymond Morton Borgman (U.S. Army 8th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division). Borgman served in the European Theater of Operations, first as a truck driver. The collection consists of documents related to the service of an American Army soldier, letters sent to his mother during World War II, and photographs taken during his service. The documents include his induction order, customs declaration, and discharge papers. The letters discuss his transit across the Atlantic Ocean, service in France in July 1944, and his time in hospitals in December 1944. The photographs consist of images of the soldier and his comrades during his military service.

Content Description

This collection relates to Hazel Louis Bowman who worked for the Signal Corps and lived in India with the American Red Cross for two years. Bowman's collection contains six full boxes, one oversize box, a phono records box, and two photograph boxes. Four of the boxes include letters written to and from Hazel to her parents, family, neighbors, and friends. The collection also contains an oral history transcript, newsletters and bulletins, American Red Cross publications, her diary, a book written by Bowman, photograph albums, and ephemera.

Content Description

This collection relates to Samuel L. Bray and his service in the U.S. Army. Samuel L. Bray served in the Army before, during, and after World War II. During World War II, then Lieutenant Samuel L. Bray served in Europe with the Signal Corps, fighting at the Battle of Metz in the United States Third Army. While in Europe, Samuel L. Bray served in France and Germany, then moving to Japan during the United States occupation post World War II. This collection contains photographs, post cards, documents, and artifacts relating to the life, service, and death of Samuel L. Bray.

Scope and Contents

This collection contains a transcript of an interview with Raymond F. Bricker conducted by David Gregory on April 17, 1999.  It details his time in the U.S. Army from 1941 through 1945. Raymond F. Bricker served with the 82nd Airborne Division during World War II.

Content Description This collection relates to Staff Sergeant Philip Lester Brinson who served with the U.S. Army Air Corps in the tail gunner position on B-26B aircraft number 41-18058 Martin Marauder with the 450th Bomb Squadron, 322nd Bombardment Group (Medium) during World War II. On September 9. 1943, this aircraft was hit by flak on a mission to Boulogne, France. The aircraft subsequently flipped over and crashed into the English Channel which killed the entire crew. Brinson was awarded the Purple Heart medal and Air Medal with 1 oak leaf cluster. This collection includes photographs, documents, Brinson's engraved Purple Heart Medal, and his wallet that was returned to the family after his...

Scope and Contents Documents in manuscript and three printed forms filled out in manuscript originating in British East and West Florida, Territorial Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Mississippi, dating from 1773 to 1868. Included in this collection are materials related to territorial Florida, William Garesche, Hermitage, Tennessee, silk and silkworms, biographical materials about Andrew Jackson, British West Florida, John Stephenson, Robert Farmar Esq. and his estate, Edmund Rush Wegg, Rev. William Gordon of Mobile, King George III, Peter Chester (Governor of British West Florida), British East Florida, debt, court orders, William Drayton (Chief Justice for British East...

Scope and Contents

This collection relates to Margaret Brockett, who remained on the homefront in a domestic role as a mother of twin boys, Ronald and Donald Brockett, during World War II. The collection contains a variety of memorabilia that Margaret kept during her time of the war, such as cookbooks, children's drawings, and more. The collection provides insight into the ways that the United States functioned during the war.

Content Description The collection includes 236 letters with some postcards and V-mails that "Cliff" wrote to his mother, Gladys Shirley, letters written to Gladys Shirley from some relatives of a soldier-friend of Cliff's who'd died in an accident, letters to Cliff from a woman he'd befriended in South Wales, and from his deceased friend's mother, to whom he'd written a note of condolence. News clippings, ephemera, and documents are also included. Cliff's letters express worries about post-war life and jobs, the desire for furlough, the point system, railroad strikes, Churchill, FDR, prices and wages, blackouts, housing problems in the US, draft dodgers, poor conditions in Germany (children begging GI's...

Content Description

This collection relates to Alvin H. Brown who served as a B-17 pilot assigned to the 8th Air Force, 95th Bomber Group flying missions over France and Germany from England ending in the summer of 1945. The collection includes an audio tape recording interview and accompanying transcript.

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This collection includes an oral history interview transcript of a homefront worker during WWII. She served in a camouflage factory. She describes her experiences surviving the Great Depression, learning of Pearl Harbor, and hearing stories about relatives' military service. This collection also contains a personal photograph.

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Eugene S. Brown served as a member of the 78th Infantry Division in the European Theater during World War II. He served from 1943-1946. His unit arrived in France in November of 1944. He performed duties as a runner and a jeep driver for his unit. This collection contains a transcript from an interview conducted June 7, 2000.

Content Description

This collection relates to Melvin Brown who served in the U.S. Army from 1941 to 1945 in the European Theatre. This collection contains an oral history transcript detailing his service and life after the war.

Scope and Contents

This collection relates to Technical Sergeant Milton Charles Brown who served in the U.S. Army with the 893rd Tank Destroyer Battalion as an Operations Noncommissioned Officer during World War II. Brown served in the European Theater of Operations.  The collection includes Brown's military personnel documents and photographs.

Scope and Contents

The collection relates to Darius Browning who served as a Private First Class in the U.S. Army with the 233rd Ordnance Company (Bomb Disposal) in Panama during World War II. This collection includes dog tags, service ribbon, and copies of discharge for Darius Browning. Several publications make up the collection along with "His Service Record" that encourage a servicemen/women to record significant experiences.

Scope and Contents

This collection contains one published Arma Corporation, Brooklyn, NY color lithograph World War II paper war bond cover.

Scope and Contents The Brumby Family Papers consist of newspaper clippings, biographies, and a diary related to the Brumby Family as well as information on the Brumby Rocker, a rocking chair produced by the Brumby Chair Company. The diary entitled, "Diary of Our Florida Trip From Marietta, GA" covers a camping trip of the Family by mule drawn wagon through Florida in the Winter of 1884-85. There are four newspaper clippings about James R. Brumby, Jr. dated 1917-1921 and a copy of an editorial about him dated 1929. A biography of "My Brother Jim," about James R. Brumby, Jr., which was written by his sister Isabel Brumby Patton. Also included in the papers is an information...

Scope and Contents This collection relates to Janet C. Bryan who was married to a U.S. Army Field Artilery officer who was stationed at various posts in the U.S. during World War II. This collection is composed of the correspondance from Janet C. Bryan to her parents, addressed as Mr. and Mrs. Raymond G. Williams, residing in Barrington and Providence, Rhode Island. Janet C. Bryan's 145 letters, postcards, and telegrams document the social activities and personal impressions of army life, train travel, and the Western U.S, including visits to San Fransisco and Oakland, San Luis Obispo, and Los Angeles. She also mentions people and family members from Providence including actor Sonny Tufts, a cousin of...

Scope and Contents

Photographic copy of manuscript circular letter by A.E. Mansfield, vice president, Fourth Division, United States Railway Mail Service Mutual Benefit Association (U.S.R.M.S.M.B.A.), Charleston, S.C., June 1, 1884, to members of the Fourth Division.

Scope and Contents Anne Burke was a nurse in the US Army Nurse Corps at the USA Fourth General Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, during World War II. The collection primarily relates to her relationship with First Lieutenant Andrew W. O'Rourke, Jr. of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. The collection includes thirty-nine letters written by Andrew to Anne during the war. The letters stop due to Andrew's death as a result of typhus fever.  Also included are four photographs, sixteen letters to Anne of condolences from those who served with Andrew, newspaper clippings, a fellow nurse's memoirs, V-mail, and a greeting card. The letters from Andrew to Anne discuss censorship, the need to keep their marriage secret,...

Scope and Contents The materials in the Edward T. Burke Jr. collection document activities of a U.S. Navy Chief Torpedoman who served on the U.S.S. Broome in the Atlantic and Mediterranean theaters during World War II and his life after the war. i) This collection consists of personal correspondence between Mr. Burke and his wife from 1940 to 1946, military personnel orders, military certificates, a personal journal of Mr. Burke’s regarding torpedo notes, photocopies and original copies of pictures depicting civilian life and naval life, papers covering post-war memorial involvement, Four Piper Destroyer Fellowship materials, video interviews of Edward T. Burke Jr., World War II documentaries,...

Scope and Contents

This collection is centered around a U.S. Army Air Corps pilot in the 35th Squadron of the 64th Troop Carrier Group. He was involved in the European- African- Middle Eastern campaign in Rome, Italy and Operation Dragoon in Southern France. This collection contains special orders, yearbooks, certifications of flight training, letters between the pilot and his family and friends, photos from Italy, France, and Puerto Rico, portraits in uniform, pamphlet for soldiers describing the famous monuments and history of Rome, Italian theatre programs, flight logs, checks, manuals, and charts, an original personnel file, various pins and medals, and maps of the Mediterranean theatre.

Scope and Contents

Immigration and naturalization documents for circus performers, postcards, circus posters and broadsides, clothing, stilts, and related materials documenting circus performances.

Content Description

This collection relates to Lawrence Burzynski, who enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1939 and was discharged in 1946 with the rank of Chief Electricians Mate. This collection contains a compilation of entries from Burzynski's diary during his seven years in the Navy. The diary provides an account of nearly every facet of U.S. Navy life during WWII and provides testimony on key moments of the war, including the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Scope and Contents

This collection relates to Technician Fifth Grade Rowland G. Bush, who served as a medical corpsman with the 104th Infantry Division, and was killed in action on October 25, 1944. The collection contains his Purple Heart and Silver Star, as well as their accompanying certificates, a Western Union telegram notifying his mother of his death, condolence letters, correspondence requesting his body be moved from Belgium to California, photographs of Rowland and his family, and the 48-star flag from his burial service.

Scope and Contents This collection pertains to Thomas A. Butler, who served as a First Lieutenant in the 468th Anti-Aircraft Artillery (AAA) Battalion during World War II. Butler served in France and Germany from 1944-1945, receiving five battle stars and a bronze star medal. In the immediate months following the war, he was stationed at the Berchtesgaden Hof Hotel, which was adjacent to Hitler’s retreat at Obersalzberg, where he operated the Hotel as a retreat for Army officers. Butler maintained a detailed Service Record Book that includes his personal information, transfers, the locations he was deployed, the people he met, and military letters he received during and after the war. In aggregate,...

Scope and Contents

This collection relates to Corporal Robert L. Butler, who served with the U.S. Army Air Corps in the U.S., and his wife Virginia Butler. This collection contains letters sent between Robert and Virginia while he was training at six different locations from 1944 to 1945. Also included in the collection are letters to Robert from his mother Vedale Butler (née Irwin) and letters to Robert from his brother Charles. The letters are personal but some discuss Robert’s daily routine while in training. Virginia’s letters mostly discuss her day-to-day routine at home in Michigan and the lives of their friends and family.