Pearl Harbor News Clipping Scrapbook of Beverly Gordon Witten

The Pearl Harbor News Clipping Scrapbook of Beverly Gordon Witten was losing the information from the news clippings due to flaking of the acidic paper. I used Japanese Rice paper to reinforce pages and hopefully keep the news clippings intact.  The library has used pages from this scrapbook in two displays on Pearl Harbor. 

Above: Beverly Gordon Witten's Pearl Harbor news clippings scrapbook 

Head line clippings on Pearl Harbor- information was being lost due to flaking of the acidic paper

Rice paper reinforcement can be seen in the white line at the bottom of the clippings page.

A clipping from the scrapbook states: "Ironically symbolic of things to come in this spectacular photo of a flight of bombers over Hawaii's jagged Diamond Head..."

"Japanese planes disgorge parachute troops, such as were reported to have been dropped during the sudden strike on Hawaii. Photo above shows Japanese paratroops practicing over Tokyo." 

The pages were reinforced with wheat paste and rice paper as seen above.

Also worked on, was a map showing a WWII attack in Africa by the Allies. The map was in sections and pieced together by using wheat paste and Japanese rice paper. 

Military Record of Captain Robert D. Schirmer

I have been working on the papers of Captain Robert D. Schirmer and include some examples from his military record below:

Dedication of papers by Nick Pelegrino

The Above March 7th, 1944 Stars snd Strips has a notation from Captain Schirmer - that he was in the raid on Berlin.

Award of Oak Leaf Cluster April, 1944

Award of Distinguished Flying Cross- May, 1944

Awards of Captain Schirmer

Papers of John Joseph Miles

I have just finished reviewing and cleaning the John J. Miles collection that was given to the Library in 2014. Due to the Covid 19, I am temporarily working at home and this has given me an opportunity to turn my attention to projects that I normally would find it difficult to accomplish at the library with other responsibilities. This is not a complete set of documents, but I hope to have highlighted some of John Miles' accomplishements.

 Below is  John Miles, appointment as Ensign on April 14th 1941:

The documents are quite extensive - here, for instance, is an assignment to the submarine base at New London:

By or before 1942, he was promoted to Lieutenant:

Also in 1942 he was assigned to Adak Island in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska.

In 1943 he was assigned to the San Diego Submarine Base

In April of 1944, it appears he was back in New London

In May of 1944, he was sent to Casco Bay Maine for temporary additional duty in DesLant's Torpedo School - on an interesting note the class convened on 5 June 1944.

Here is a report of his service on the U.S.S. Portunus

A report from Okinawa

Above is a release from active duty from the U.S.S. Missoula 

Congratulatory letter from James Forrestal Secretary of the Navy

Traveling Archivist Grant

Kathy Foulke contacted me today and we are going to discuss the project for the possible grant tomorrow!

Further Work done on Application of The Traveling Archivist Implementation Grant

Much of the day was spent working on the grant which asked such questions about the proposed project including the scope and goals.  One thing I mentioned was the fact that the library does not have a catalog of the archives. Digitization of the photos would not provide a catalog entry in the regular catalog of the library, however it might somewhat provide a further "anchor" for the photos in the sense that they would be cataloged on a digitized web site. Still working on the grant and we will see how it goes!

Possible Traveling Archivist Grant funded by The Traveling Archivist Program (TAP) funded by National Historical Publications and Records Commission [NHPRC].

There is a grant I learned about last week which may, if obtained, provided the library with either digitization opportunities or possibly an opportunity to work with Past Perfect. 

The Traveling Archivist Program (TAP) is a program of the Connecticut State Historical Records Advisory Board with Conservation ConneCTion and funded by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission [NHPRC].

The submission of the grant text is due July 1st, so I am rushing to find our all the details now!

Old Pictures of East Haven

Today I contacted Kathy Varda of Conservation ConneCTion to find out if there were any websites available for the upload of the East Haven pictures of which the library has several catalogs. Some of the pictures date back to the 1800s. We have already put some pictures on Treasures of Connecticut Libraries a few of which can be seen below:

With Covid-19, the archival filing, repair, display etc. have almost come to a stop. The staff has been working pretty much at home, but I hope to continue working on a virtual museum of objects owned by the library that I started some time ago: Virtual Museum