Correspondence with Military Personnel World War II collection

Collection

Identifier: MSS-BU-10

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Letters to Churches series contains correspondences between servicemen and their home churches, as well as lists of congregants in the services. Dean Emery Johnson of Bethel contacted churches accross the country to obtain the names and addresses of those in the military during World War II. This series is located in boxes 1 and 2 of this collection.

Box 3 holds the correspondence between Bethel personnel, primarily Emery Johnson, and the military members. These letters describe life during war abroad and on the home front.

Dates

Majority of material found within 1941 - 1946

Extent

4.5 Cubic Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Arrangement

The first two boxes of letters are arranged according to the church to which the correspondence was sent. The third box of letters to people at Bethel is arranged in alphabetical order according to last name of the writer. Donated order is unknown.

Custodial History

This collection consists primarily of letters written by servicemen during World War II to Baptist General Conference churches and to Bethel. Information about the donation of these letters to the archives is unknown. Box 3, letters written to people at Bethel, may have once been part of the G. Arvid Hagstrom papers, but were separated out into a new collection by archivist Diana Magnuson sometime after 2014.

Physical Description

Blue binder from Box 2 discarded due to mold. It's contents are in two folders labeled "Blue Binder Contents". Small pieces of these docuements that did not have any written content on them were cut off due to mold growth.

Processing Information

This collection was processed sometime between 2014 and 2018 by Diana Magnuson and possibly a student worker. This finding aid was developed by Rebekah Bain based upon its previous processed order according to folder labels.