Use Restrictions

All materials created up to 1928 are in the public domain.

The following statement applies to materials created from 1929 onward: The copyright and related rights status of this collection have not been evaluated (See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/)

Access Restrictions

There are no access restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Thomas Griest World War I collection, C0515, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries

Acquisition Information

Purchased by Lynn Eaton from Caroliniana Rare Books in June 2019.

Processing Information

Processing completed by Meghan Glasbrenner from March - December 2024. Finding aid completed by Meghan Glasbrenner from December 2024 - January 2025.

Biographical and Historical Information

Thomas H. Griest was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on August 20, 1884 to Joseph Pownall and Mabel Haines Griest, the second of four children. Griest joined the Bell Telephone Company in Eastern Pennsylvania in 1906 as a building inspector and would eventually be named general commercial manager in 1933. During World War I he served with the 406th Telegraph Battalion, starting as a Lieutenant and ultimately attaining the rank of Major. After spending approximately two months, from June - August 1917, in training at the Army Signal Corps camp in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, Griest headed overseas and spent the majority of the war in France. A devout Quaker, he was one of a small number of the typically anti-war members of the Society of Friends to serve in the American Expeditionary Forces. He returned home in early April 1919 and spent the rest of his life living and working in and around Philadelphia with his wife Mary and their two children. He passed away on January 9, 1947 at the age of 62 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.

The United States formally entered the conflict now known as World War I nearly three years after fighting began in Europe, declaring war against Germany on April 6, 1917. Only a few short months later, in August 1917, the 406th Telegraph Battalion, Signal Corps became one of the first two telegraph battalions sent to France to join the fighting, later proudly referring to itself as "The First Battalion". Composed entirely of employees of the Bell Telephone Company in Eastern Pennsylvania, the 406th was part of the United States Army Signal Corps, the branch responsible for maintaining all military communications, or signals. Despite the men's lack of prior military experience, the Battalion was able to mobilize quickly, after only four months of military training, due to their existing communications experience and knowledge as Bell Telephone employees. The Battalion served primarily in France for the duration of the war, taking part in several major American offensives, such as the Second Battle of the Marne. A written history of the unit was published in 1921 titled The First Battalion. The Story of the 406th Telegraph Battalion Signal Corps, U. S. Army , with Major Thomas H. Griest gathering and organizing much of the material used in its writing.

Scope and Content

The Thomas Griest World War I collection contains correspondence, photographs, military field orders, and ephemera created and collected by American soldier Thomas Griest primarily during and immediately after his time serving with the 406th Telegraph Battalion during World War I, 1917-1919, with additional materials created between 1899, 1910-1921, and 1940-1944. The collection contains 3 series.

Series 1: Personal correspondence (1910-1944) includes sent and received personal correspondence, including letters, telegrams, and postcards. The bulk of the correspondence covers Griest's time serving with the 406th Telegraph Battalion from June 1917 – March 1919 and are between Griest and his wife Mary Cooper Griest. Many of these letters also contain pressed flowers which have been rehoused but retained in context and noted at the folder level. Additional correspondence includes letters from Mary prior to her marriage to Thomas, as well as correspondence with family, friends, and various businesses and military officials related to personal matters. Several contain newspaper clippings or forwarded letters from others and a number of letters are written in French. This series is arranged alphabetically by correspondent last name, organization title, or type of correspondence.

Series 2: 406th Telegraph Battalion (circa 1900s-1920s) includes materials created by and related to members of the Telegraph Battalion Signal Corps and the First Army Corps American Expeditionary Forces. It is further divided into three subseries. Sub-series 1: Official materials (1917-1920) includes reports, bulletins, field orders, rosters, and other materials and ephemera created by the Telegraph Battalion Signal Corps and the First Army Corps American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) as well as draft materials for the The First Battalion , the history of the 406th Telegraph Battalion. Items are arranged alphabetically by document title or material type. Sub-series 2: Soldier personal accounts (circa 1918-1921) includes handwritten and typed first-person accounts from members of the Telegraph Battalion Signal Corps gathered by Griest for use in the 406th Telegraph Battalion history The First Battalion . Folder dates reflect when the account was written and items are arranged alphabetically by soldier last name or by description of the content where no name is given. Sub-series 3: Photographs and negatives (circa 1900s-1919) includes official press and personal photographs and negatives related to the 406th Telegraph Battalion and the United States military during World War I, as well as proof pages for the The First Battalion . Some photographs include inscriptions or identifying information, including photographer stamps. This sub-series also includes a small number of personal portraits depicting members of the Griest family, Division of Picture photograph order forms, and official lists of photograph titles and identification numbers. The bulk of the materials cover 1917-1919 and items are arranged based on print size, topic, or material type.

Series 3: Periodicals and ephemera (1899, circa 1911-1944) includes magazines, newspaper clippings, poems, souvenir postcards, programs, and general World War I and personal ephemera collected by Griest, as well as a personal daily diary for 1899. Several volumes of Bruce Bairnsfather's cartoon collection Fragments from France and the Bell Telephone Company's employee magazine "The Telephone News" can be found in this sub-series. Items are arranged alphabetically by title or material type.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged into three series.

Related Material

The Special Collections Research Center holds other collections related to World War I including the Gustav Klemp World War I collection , Underwood and Underwood World War I press photographs , and Diary of World War I Red Cross Canteen worker Florence Bishop .

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania
• Correspondence
• France
• Paris (France)
• Pennsylvania
• Personal narratives
• Photographs
• Postcards
• United States -- Armed Forces -- Military life
• United States. Army
• United States. Army. Telegraph Battalion, 406th
• World War, 1914-1918