World War, 1939-1945--Solomon Islands

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 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 This collection relates to John W. Rockwood who served with the U.S. Navy during the Second World War in the 145th Construction Battalion Seabees. He served in the Solomon Islands and Okinawa. This collection contains ten letters from Rockwood to his cousin, Jane Brunkow, and her father in Pelham Manor, New York and a photograph of Rockwood with his children during a duck hunt in 1950. His letters reference his time in the Solomon Islands. He mentions sending mementos, such as a whiskey shot glass and bracelet made from Japanese planes and shells, some crafts from the local natives, as well as some dirt from his foxhole. He also spends some time describing the environment of...

Scope and Contents

This collection contains World War II locally published U.S. Navy Seabees news bulletins. which contain articles about the recruitment, expansion and war time activities of the Navy Construction Battalions, the CBs or Seabees.

Scope and Contents

This collection relates to Diana Naylor Morgan who served as a junior USO hostess in New Jersey during World War II. The collection includes an oral interview with Morgan, news articles, photographs, and letters sent to her from American and British soldiers deployed overseas during World War II.

In the letters, servicemen describe their day to day activities while deployed overseas, their locations, views on the Japanese, and opinions about the Atomic Bomb. A letter dated June 2, 1944, written by an American sailor Ernest Feasy was not censored; Feasy describes how he is waiting for D-Day to arrive.