Memorial Day seems like a good time to highlight military-related documents held at IWU. Students, alumni, faculty and administrators have served in all U.S. wars since IWU’s founding. Diaries, correspondence, service records and recollections are held in both our archives and special collections.
Examples of these documents include service applications of the WWII-era Nurse’s Cadet Corps, alumni responses to a post-WWII survey of activities, correspondence from WWII soldiers to IWU student Nell Carmichael, correspondence and sketches from alumnus and Professor of Art Fred Brain to his family during WWII, index of WWI veterans plus photocopied clippings of articles related to their service, Nursing Superintendent Maude Essig’s WWI diary, and administrative meeting notes and student reporting on war-related activities on campus and abroad.
We lack significant documentation on the WWII-era S.A.T.C. and welcome donations related to this group’s purpose and activities on campus. Some dilligent researcher’s eyes may uncover details on this and other student groups’ efforts in existing documentation, and all our records are open and available for that work. Leave a reply (below) to contact me about arranging a visit!
I was pleased to find on the internet a copy of the transcribed diary of Maude Essig, as well as the 1986 article by Alma S. Woolley in Indiana Magazine of History based on Maude’s diary. I am interested to know if you have any additional information or photos in your collections relating to Base Hospital 32. My great aunt, Agnes Swift, also served as a nurse with that unit, in the group that was recruited from southeastern Iowa (Unit R). While Maude’s training and assignments corresponded with the majority of the unit organized in Indiana, they were both ultimately stationed in Contrexeville, France. I have the texts a cousin transcribed of Agnes’s letters home, as well as a copy of the BH 32 unit history by Benjamin Hitz, photographs from various internet sources, and snapshots from my own trip to Contrexeville several years ago.