World War II in Southeast North Carolina and Beyond

This collection contains materials pertaining to the life and military career of Harmon C. Rorison, a military officer, pilot, and banker from Wilmington, North Carolina. The bulk of the materials in this collection pertain to Rorison’s military service during World War I, the Russo-Polish War (also known as the Polish-Soviet War), and World War II. The military-related materials include correspondence, including a letter to Rorison from Merian Cooper; copies of U.S.

This collection is comprised of 109 photocopies of letters from black soldiers during World War II. They were used in Dr. Phillip McGuire’s book, Taps for a Jim Crow Army, published in 1983.

This collection contains oversized volumes of cantor's music in Hebrew, loose leaves of printed music, Yiddish posters, Hebrew choral manuscripts in parts Haggadah (Hebrew-English), an oral history with Trudi Rosenthal of the Holocaust, and Rabbi Thurman's last sermon.

This manuscript collection contains information related to Dr. William Madison Randall's family and career from 1899 to 1972. Included are documents, correspondence, publications, newspaper articles and clippings, photographs and ephemera related to Randall's childhood, military career, career at UNCW, interest in languages and other scholarly pursuits. The collection also includes a tool belt and his graduation robes.

The collection contains business receipts, letters, and advertisements from three businesses operated by Oscar High of Whiteville, North Carolina, spanning more than forty years from 1916 thru the 1960s, with special emphasis on the period between 1920's through 1950's. The personal letters of Mr. High's Waccamaw cottage rental business are of particular interest, as this covers both the Great Depression and World War II years and demonstrates his highly regarded business ethics and eagerness to aid his clients.

The Cornelius M. Dickinson Thomas Letters include personal correspodence, post cards, greeting cards and photographs from Thomas' experience during WWII. The collection also includes various documents relating to James Forte, a 17th century settlement, and two paintings on canvas.

This collection of Brauer papers is organized in several series. The first series to be processed focuses on Brauer's early life, from birth through the late 1940s. In addition to documenting Brauers's early life, this series contain a large amount of material about pre-WWI Germany, with items dating from the early 1900s through 1920. It also includes documentation of the political situation in Germany during Hitler's ascent. Many rare, one-of-a-kind, ephemeral newspapers, leaflets, handouts, and other items are to be found in this series.

This collection consists of photocopies of letters written by Bruce B. Cameron to his future wife, Meredith College student Lottie Fales, as well as later letters written by their son, Daniel D. Cameron, to his parents and sister during his service in WWII.

This collection contains research material collected by author Wilbur D. Jones, Jr. for his novels, including interviews, newspaper and magazine articles, photographs, author notes, correspondence with publishers, and drafts of the manuscripts.

This collection consists of material collected by Robert J. Cooke from various presidential elections from the late 1960s to the early 1990s, primarily at the respective Democratic Conventions. Items include copies of speeches, pamphlets, publications, press badges, ads, biographies, and campaign material. Candidates of note include Governor George C. Wallace, President Jimmy Carter, and President Bill Clinton. A selection of Cooke's research on the Rorison family of Wilmington, North Carolina is also included.

This collection contains memorabilia from the European Front of World War II collected by Sgt. Weaver during his service overseas, including memorandums, Special Orders, certificates, photographs correspondence, and postcards.

This collection contains notes, photographs, and other memorabilia from a displaced German family post WWII (1945 and 1946).

Network radio and TV announcer for more than 40 years, Krupp worked for all of "The Big Three," ABC, CBS and NBC, as well as a contract announcer for many weekly radio shows. He was stationed at Schofield Barracks Post Broadcasting System as manager of the station, and interrupted a regularly scheduled program one minute after receiving a news flash from Associated Press bulletin announcing the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. A man of many interests, Krupp showed talent as an artist, a gourmet cook, and creative woodworking.

This collection contains papers pertaining to Joseph A. Moore’s service in the United States Navy during World War II. Moore served on the USS Uhlmann with the Fast Carrier Task Force, specifically Task Force 38 (3rd Fleet) and Task Force 58 (5th Fleet). The collected documents, directly and indirectly, reflect the daily life of a serviceman and war in the Pacific arena. Included are correspondence, certificates, photographs, collected Japanese ephemera, and ship logs documenting daily responsibilities, war news, and tactical information.

The Kiker collection contains photos of Frank Kiker, telegrams sent to his family notifying them of his injury, copy of his honorable discharge, his Purple Heart, and other medals he was awarded. The paper items were in a scrapbook and attached on both sides of the pages.

This collection contains letters and WWII memorabilia from George Fokakis' military service and items of personal importance, including reunion books, badges, and maps. The dates of the letters span from 1943 to 1951, during WWII and the Korean War. The letters contain correspondence mainly between George and his family during his time of service in WWII. George wrote often to his siblings: sisters Katherine and Clara, and his brother Nick.

Personal collection of Ms. Frances Guthrie. Includes scrapbooks, photographs, and correspondence from time spent in Puerto Rico and Japan working for the United States Department of Defense in the 1940s and 1950s.

This collection contains personal correspondence and ration paperwork from Lt. Commander David S. Harriss's service in the United States Navy from 1942-1945. The rations are for non-highway gasoline and include two gasoline ration coupons, a mileage rationing record, and a basic mileage ration coupon book. This collection also includes an Alcoholic Beverage Control Sales Permit made out to Elizabeth H. Harriss and a letter regarding a "change of duty" to David Harriss from the Bureau of Naval Personnel.

This collection contains materials pertaining to the lives, education, and military services of several members of the Dukes family, including Judson L. Dukes (1922-2004), Mary Smith Dukes (1926-1990), Dr. Judson L. Dukes, Jr. (1945-2010), and Bennie E. Dukes (1948-2001). Types of materials include correspondence, scrapbooks, photo albums, autograph books, military records, educational records, programs, certificates, photographs, slides, newspaper clippings, artwork, plaques and other types of memorabilia.

This collection features the photography of Patricia O'Meara Robbins and the family research her daughter, Carroll Robbins Jones, compiled with her husband, Wilbur D. Jones, Jr., to write their book about Patricia's life and career--"She 'Shot' Her Way to Success: How China's Empress Dowager Ci Xi Launched a Photographer's Trailblazing Career," published in 2016.

This collection contains pamphlets, photos, maps, and correspondence from Joseph C. Bostwick's service with the 397th infantry regiment of the 100th division of the United States Army during World War II.

The Special Collections vertical files are compiled by Special Collections staff on an ongoing basis and contain material such as articles, photocopied documents, maps, emphemera, etc. of various persons, places, organizations, and topical subjects related to UNCW and Southeastern North Carolina history.

This collection contains thirty-six official United States Navy photographs of the attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and two booklets, Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941 and This is . . . Pearl Harbor, both of which give brief histories of the area and chronicles the events of December 7, 1941.

This collection consists of two World War II newspapers: The Tribune, Manila, Philippines, Wednesday, December 9, 1942 (Year XVIII, Number 253) [12 pages] and the Cockatoo News Summary, 6th Infantry Division—The Philippines, Wednesday, May 9, 1945 (Volume 2, Number 116) [4 pages]. The Tribune was an English-language daily newspaper printed in the Commonwealth of the Philippines from 1930 to 1945. This issue reports the War news with emphasis on Japan and its victory over the Americans. The Cockatoo News Summary reports the official announcement of Germany’s unconditional surrender.

This collection contains photographs and plans that span thirty-one years of U.S. military history at sea. Of note in the collection are twenty-one photos of Japanese bombing and aftermath of Pearl Harbor.

This group of World War II documents consists of five U.S. military duplicates: a U.S. military inspection report of Buchenwald Concentration Camp, liberated on 11 April 1945 by members of the Third Army under General George S. Patton; Special Communique No. 8 of the Supreme Headquarters, A.E.F. - an official notice of German Surrender 8 May 1945; a commendation letter from Dwight David Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, A.E.F. to Colonel Martin A. Bateman, Commander, 302nd Transport Wing, Army Air Corps, and to the men under his command; two messages on the verso of D.D.E.'s letter: the first from Col. Bateman to his crews, and the second from Lt. Col. K.A. Reecher, Commander, 27th Air Transport Group, 302nd Transport Wing to the squadrons in his group, relaying Eisenhower's commendation of their repatriation flights. Samuel D. Bissette, who was assigned, during World War II, to S-2, Headquarters, 20th Air Transport Group stationed near Versailles, France, gave these documents as a gift to William Madison Randall Library, on 10 January 1995. Mr. Bissette gained possession of these documents from the plane crews (and others) of the 20th who were responsible for flying Buchenwald survivors to France. Eisenhower's commendation of the 302nd was for their repatriation of Buchenwald survivors.

This collection consists of photocopies of various “Top and Most Secret” military correspondences. Primary reference material covers military operations, statistics, and personal correspondences between Russian, allied, and Czechoslovakian armed forces. The researcher may find official German and Czechoslovakian records not translated to be of particular interests along with official accounts of various wartime assaults on enemy targets.

This collection includes Confederate currency from Louisiana and two international newspapers from World War II.

The John Gunn Sports Collection primarily consists of media guides and game day programs collected by John Gunn for professional and college sports teams and military sports teams. Gunn's research and correspondence, as well as his personal collection of sports programs, statistics, information on teams and individual players, and photographs are also included.

This collection contains football memorabilia, World War II memorabilia, and veteran documents. Included are game day programs from Army football games Sherwin Lipman played during World War II, as well as game day programs from football games Lipman played in the American Association immediately after World War II. The programs are dated from 1945 to 1946. The football memorabilia series also includes newspaper clippings and articles written about games Lipman was a part of during his football career.

This collection contains issues of "Yank Magazine" and the "Stars and Stripes" newspaper, which were published by the U.S. Military during World War II. These publications reported on the happenings of the war and focused on members of the armed forces overseas.

The Special Collections vertical files are compiled by Special Collections staff on an ongoing basis and contain material such as articles, photocopied documents, maps, emphemera, etc. of various persons, places, organizations, and topical subjects related to UNCW and Southeastern North Carolina history.