Black Market

This collection pertains to Technician Fifth Grade Zeddie P. Barron, Jr., who was stationed in Virginia, Kentucky, Ireland, Britain, France, Holland, Belgium, and Germany between 1943 and 1945. As a clerk in the 552nd Railhead Company, Barron was attached to the First Engineer Special Brigade. The collection contains personal letters sent from Barron to his wife throughout his period of service, military documents including a ration book, Barron's military record and entrance physical, as well as newspaper clippings, envelopes, and an unpublished poem by Eugene S. Masters reacting to the use of the atomic bomb.

The Edward L. Herp papers document Captain Edward Herp's time spent as a radio operator for the 321st Fighter Control Squadron of the 9th Air Force for the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. The collection contains an oral history, various photographs, the bulk of them taken at the Buchenwald concentration camp, a letter discussing the photographs, personal documents, postcards, and other items that illustrate his service in Great Britain, France, Belgium, Germany, and Czechoslovakia. Also in the oral history, Herp discusses his time spent working at Florida State University for WFSU-TV and as a professor of television production.

The Joseph K. Pettengill Collection was donated to Florida State University by Robert Sherman Pettengill in 2005, having discovered his father’s letters after retiring in 1999.  The centerpiece of the Pettengill Collection is a series of letters from Joseph Pettengill, an army clerk with the G-3 Section of the 6th Army Group, Hq Special Troops in the ETO, to his mother and wife throughout his time serving in the United States Army in World War II.

The William H. Wallace Collection was donated to Florida State University by Robin Wallace Turco in May 2015.  The centerpiece of the Wallace Collection is a series of forty-six letters and postcards from Josette Asphiotis, a French penpal, to American airman William Wallace from 1944 to 1946.