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Dearborn County correspondence, 1920-1922

 File — Box: 7, Folder: 8

Scope and Contents

From the Collection: This collection contains the administrative files of the Indiana War History Commission, including a detailed history of the group, publication plans and ingoing and outgoing correspondence.

The commission collected information from most Indiana counties during World War I. This information falls into two categories: service records of soldiers, used for the publication of the "Gold Star Honor Roll" and "Indiana's Roll of Honor"; and war histories, records of civilian activities, including draft boards, ration boards and charitable and benevolent organizations. The "Military Service Records" include questionnaires of servicemen who died in active duty. Records are supplemented with correspondence from the soldiers' family or friends, descriptions of their training and service, details of their deaths, excerpts from their diaries as well as photographs.

A scrapbook, pamphlets, photographs and correspondence from the Indianapolis French Relief Fund provides a brief history of their activities. Information about the Navy Comfort Commission, Red Cross, Boys' Working Reserve, veteran re-employment, War Risk Insurance, and the State Wide War Conference is also included.

During and shortly after World War II, the commission was able to gather a large amount of material from around the state, although not all persons and institutions were equally cooperative. The bulk of the collection represents materials collected for the proposed publication series as well as materials collected from other activities.

The names of men and women who died while in service were recorded for the "Gold Star Honor Roll" as they had been during World War I. Newspaper clippings were assembled and arranged alphabetically, documenting casualties, missing, prisoners, sick, wounded and those awarded medals and citations. These records fall into three categories: service records of the deceased, arranged alphabetically by personal name; and county historians' records of war casualties; and soldiers' obituaries clipped by the Commission's staff, arranged by county.

The "Letters from Fighting Hoosiers" are arranged by war zones. In some cases, this was impossible, as either there was no address, or the letters were from multiple locations. The folders contain original letters, photographs, newspaper clippings, War History Commission correspondence and a few typed manuscripts. All branches of the service are represented: Army and Women's Army Corps (WACS) (including the Army Air Corps, Navy and Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services (WAVES); Marines and women Marines; Coast Guard, and the United States Coast Guard Women's Reserve (SPARS).

"Schools at War" scrapbooks are arranged alphabetically by county.

Business and industry histories are arranged by town. A separate list by county is also available upon request.

Dates

  • 1917-1989

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research.

Extent

From the Collection: 34.5 Cubic Feet (48 manuscript boxes; 16 small oversize boxes; 10 medium oversize boxes; 1 large oversize box)

Language of Materials

From the Collection: English

Creator

Repository Details

Part of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Repository

Contact:
140 North Senate Avenue
Indianapolis, Indiana 46204 U.S.A.
317-232-3671