Special Collections Research Center

Scope and Contents

This collection contains a single letter, written immediately after the announcement of the surrender of Germany by a mother in Connecticut to her son, Private First Class Carl Holmberg, who had been wounded. The letter discusses the arrival of V-E Day, the continuing fighting in the Pacific, and advice to not continue serving.

Content Description This collection consists of over 85 handwritten letters and 3 photographs. It documents the final year of World War II (1945) from the perspective of a United States Navy parachute rigger stationed at U.S.N.A.S. Klamath Falls in Oregon. W.A. (Wilfred Allen or Al) Fountain wrote to Evelyn Ruth Lanphere, who lived in Coupeville, on Whidbey Island, in Washington State. Few letters are dated; envelope postmarks detail the letters’ chronology. The end of World War II is often...

Scope and Contents

Posters featuring works illustrated by George Withers while an artist at the European Theater of Operations in Paris, France during World War II. Includes the first page of a letter home to his wife Virginia, Victory in Europe (V-E) Day in Paris, liberated Paris in the summer of 1945, and the Cirque de Paris. There are also two commercial illustrations by George Withers which include a movie poster and a drawing of Walt Whitman's birthplace on Long Island.