![[logo]](http://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaead/logos/uva-sc.jpg)
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections LibraryEllen Welch
Collection is open for research use.
Purchased 13 August 2010.
Addison H. Smith enrolled in the United States Ambulance Service in 1917 at the age of twenty-two years old. He arrived in Italy in June 1918, and was transferred to the front in France in September 1918. Most of the letters he wrote were to his mother, Martha Smith.
The Addison H. Smith papers (1917-1970; 1.6 cubic feet) includes many letters between 1917 and 1919 to Addison Smith's mother and his battlefield diary from 1918, which describes in vivid detail the voyage to Europe and his work as an ambulance driver in France. It also includes his certificates of discharge and service in the United States Army Ambulance Service, photographs, postcards, and newspaper clippings. The majority of the collection dates between the years of 1917 to 1922, and there are also newspaper clippings and legislation letters from the 1970s.
The collection is arranged alphabetically by topic and subarranged chronologically within each folder.
Addison Smith and his representative about investing in stock for a sales firm, and letters from Addison Smith's widow about veteran's compensation. There are also letters from Addison's widow and her congressman about legislation to support veteran benefits
Buckeye Commercial Savings Bank about stock investments and debts.
Postcards written in German between Anna Gurgen and the Leppin family
Addison Smith's certificate for Honorable Discharge and his certificate for being a Charter Member of the United States Army Ambulance Service Association
A common prayer book, the New Testament, and an agenda book in which Addison Smith wrote a diary He also described women, bohemians, his trip across the Atlantic, his time in Italy, on the front, and the armistice.
Addison Smith's marriage announcement to Phyllis Frizzell
Theater programs and a copy of a miscellaneous painting
A letter from the War Department about an Italian Commemorative medal Addison Smith received, an Italian train ticket, and information for soldiers about how to get a job after they were discharged from the army