Special Collections Research Center

Scope and Contents

91 photos of African Americans during World War II.  Many of the photos are labeled Wissmar (captured by Ally forces May 2, 1945) and Frankfurt, Germany.  Some names of the soldiers are printed on the back of the photographs.  Most of the photos are not dated and depict men in their uniforms near military vehicles and in a casual setting.  Some photographs are of the men with local (civilian dress) women.

Scope and Contents

This collection includes posters, fliers, programs, cards, memorabilia, letters sent to alumni, membership interest forms, issues of The Sphinx, and other material from the Kappa Pi Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. at the College of William and Mary. The records include material from both the College of William and Mary chapter as well as information from the national chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha.

Scope and Contents Primarily this is a collection of love letters written between 1942-1944 to Gertha Barbara Jean Sykes residing in St. Louis, Missouri and James NMI Dansby, an African-American soldier in the United States Army. There are also letters from two other Army soldiers, Jack Smith, stationed in the Pacific and Benjamin D. Collins, an aircompany soldier, whom Sykes married in 1949. The letters begin when Dansby joined the Army and started basic training in Camp Shelby, Hattiesburg,...

Scope and Contents

Primarily letters, postcards, and receipts, mostly from the period 1921-1923 of an African American family living in Lightfoot, Virginia. Family members included Signor Bradby, Elizabeth Bradby and Annie Bradby. Some papers relate to Willmore Jones, John Jones, and other Jones family members. Several transactions with the firm of J.A. Bozarth of Williamsburg are present.

Content Description

Four letters to Miss Helen Cowley, Dingley's girlfriend. Dingley was assistant director of the Hamtramck Tau Beta Camp in Columbiaville, Michigan. This was a camp for underprivileged youth and Dingley writes about his time at this camp. As an African American, Dingley also details his time at the NAACP wartime conference, held in Chicago in 1943.

Scope and Contents

The collection consists of reports and projects supported by the Lemon Project including student papers and oral histories. The collection also contains programs, and brochures from events invlolving members of the Lemon Project.

Scope and Contents Artifacts and memorabilia kept by members of the Alpha Delta Sigma Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. at William & Mary. In addition to memorabilia and a flier from the first class of pledges, there are also fliers from attempts to organize a chapter in the early 1990s and a circa 1960s fraternity sweater worn by Justin Reid’s father when he was a student at what was then Virginia State College and is now Virginia State University. The collection also includes an autographed copy...

Scope and Contents Approximately 25 letters, 1918-1919, predominately from Bernice Edward Payne, of Roaring Springs, Texas, to his parents, Macon L. and Mattie S. Payne, and sister, Eunice Payne. Bernice Payne, a white man, served in the US Army during World War I. He began his initial training at Camp Travis, Texas as a private in the Quartermaster Corps. After successfully passing his examinations, Payne began to oversee the 322nd Labor Battalion Quartermaster Corps, an all-African American battalion. He was...

Scope and Contents

The Richard E. Norman film production collection contains film promotional flyers and brochures produced by Richard E. Norman through Norman Studios from 1919- 1940. Norman became a widely recognized film maker who produced "race" films. These were films that contained all African American casts and targeted an African American audience. Posters include those for films The Crimson Skull (1922) by Richard Edward Norman and The Flying Ace (1926) by Lawrence Criner.

Scope and Contents Photograph album created by Thomas "Tommy" Matthew William Green, Jr. who served in the United States Army during World War II.  He was a second generation African American soldier, his father, Thomas M. W. Green was a Sergeant - Cavalry Detachment in the Army and is buried at West Point Military Academy Cemetery.  Green was part of a segregated unit and his album features photos of his friends and family along with other soldiers with whom he served.  The photographs along with some of his...