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Special Collections Research Center
William & Mary Special Collections Research CenterEarl Gregg Swem Library
400 Landrum Dr
Williamsburg, Virginia
Business Number: 757-221-3090
spcoll@wm.edu
URL: https://libraries.wm.edu/libraries-spaces/special-collections
Finding Aid Authors: Eve Bourbeau-Allard, graduate assistant, in 2015.
Administrative Information
Conditions Governing Use:
Before reproducing or quoting from any materials, in whole or in part, permission must be obtained from the Special Collections Research Center, and the holder of the copyright, if not Swem Library.
Conditions Governing Access:
Collection is open to all researchers Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, such as the Virginia Public Records Act (Code of Virginia. § 42.1-76-91); and the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (Code of Virginia § 2.2-3705.5). Confidential material may include, but is not limited to, educational, medical, and personnel records. If sensitive material is found in this collection, please contact a staff member immediately. The disclosure of personally identifiable information pertaining to a living individual may have legal consequences for which the College of William and Mary assumes no responsibility.
Preferred Citation:
Mary Frances Switzer Papers, Special Collections Research Center, William & Mary Libraries
Acquisition Information:
Purchase
Biographical / Historical
Mary Frances Switzer (1919-2005) served as a nurse during World War Two in France, Belgium, and Germany. She first trained to become a nurse in the late 1930s - early 1940s in New Orleans. Born in Jacksonville, Florida, to Mr and Mrs John F. Switzer, Mary was educated at Stetson University, Florida, and officiated as President of the Florida Private Duty Nurses Association.
Scope and Contents
Papers, letters, and photographs of Mary Frances Switzer (1919-2005) of Florida who served as a World War II army nurse in France, Belgium, and Germany. After a pre-war nursing degree completed in New Orleans, Mary spent time training in military camps in the United States and England. The collection comprises letters written during the war by Mary to her parents while she was abroad, in which she describes life in army camps and combat zones, leisure activities while on break, and the places she visits. There are also letters from friends and relatives, the bulk of which comes from Mary's fiancé, Allen Galer, from Michigan. Mary and Allen got engaged in September 1938, but separated when Mary decided to pursue her studies in New Orleans. They stayed in contact throughout the war. Allen, who served in the Philippines, writes about the ups and downs of their relationship and his wartime experience in the army and training for the air force. Mary's papers thus document life in the military during WWII, but also college life and courtship in the late 1930s and 1940s.
Furthermore, the collection contains more than 800 photographs taken by Mary while serving in Europe. They are arranged thematically according to their content. Photographs include numerous informal portraits of nurses and soldiers, landscapes and cityscapes, and many scenes captured in military camps and on the road with the army across Western Europe.
Also included in the collection are official military documents about Mary's assignments, ephemera from locations visited in Europe, and earlier letters exchanged among family members.
This collection has been digitized. Links to the digital objects are at the folder level within the container inventory.
Arrangement of Materials:
Collection divided into four series: Correspondence; Army Papers and Wartime Ephemera; Photographs; and Negatives. The Correspondence series is divided into four subseries organized by correspondents and then chronologically. The internal arrangement for subsequent series is thematic. Most photographs are undated and unidentified, so a thematic organized prevailed except when information written on the back of photographs allowed for a more precise classification.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
- Correspondence
- Galer, Allen
- Photographs
- World War, 1939-1945--European Front
- World War, 1939-1945--Medical and sanitary affairs.
- World War, 1939-1945--Women--United States
Container List
- id266316
Switzer Family Letters, 1911-1940Scope and Contents
The bulk of the Switzer family correspondence are letters written to John S. Switzer, Mary's father, by relatives and business contacts concerning land transactions, real estate, the construction of a house, farm matters, and financial matters.
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 1 id266554
Letters to John Switzer1911 May-1912 OctoberScope and Contents
Letters to John Switzer. Inheritance of land, land sales, hired labor for farm, harvests, family news, bank arrangements for the construction of a house. Most letters sent to John while living in Jacksonville, Florida, by his father.
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 2 id266558
Letters to John Switzer1912 November-1913 January
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 3 id266566
Letters to Mr. and Mrs. Switzer1930, 1940Scope and Contents
Letters to Mr. and Mrs. Switzer. A July 1930 letter to Mrs. Switzer regarding membership dues to the Annie Perdue Sebring chapter in Jacksonville, FL; and a December 1940 letter for "Ma and Pa Switzer" from "your son Charles,: living in Georgia, giving news of his health and romantic life.
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 1 id266554
- id266318
Letters from Mary to Parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Switzer, 1944Scope and Contents
This sub-series comprises letters sent by Mary to her parents during her training as a nurse in England and her wartime service in France, Belgium, and Germany. Mary requests items to be sent to her, especially food, and describes her travels, her difficult work shifts in field hospitals, the social life and entertainment provided in army camps, and rest periods. Most letters are several pages long, but the correspondence also includes V-Mail (Victory Mail, messages transferred on film and then printed at destination), telegrams, and cards. They were previously glued to scrapbook pages but were extracted, when possible, for better preservation.
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 4 id266578
Letters1944 January
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 5 id266584
Letters1944 January-FebruaryScope and Contents
Went to Bath, describes the social life in training camps.
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 6 id266588
Letters1944 March-AprilScope and Contents
Recounts trip to London and includes theater programs.
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 7 id266596
Letters1944 MayScope and Contents
Scope and Contents Expresses her frustration at "doing nothing" and waiting in England; tries to locate a man named Paul through the Red Cross. Includes a clipping from a newspaper gossip column "Tea Table Chatter" about an encounter in London between Mary and Captain Jack Jourdan, also from FL.
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 8 id266598
Letters1944 JuneScope and Contents
Feeling of helplessness as she hears of battles; transfers to France to accompany troops. Recounts sleeping in fox holes and hearing sound of shells, as well as starting to work in a field hospital.
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 9 id266604
Letters1944 JulyScope and Contents
Retells details of her trip to England to France and says she works hard.
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 Folder: 10 id266612
Letters1944 SeptemberScope and Contents
Works on night duty with German prisoners; hopes to go to a Fred Astaire show for soldiers (see Photographs series, box 3 folder 5, for visuals of the event).
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 11 id266616
Letters1944 OctoberScope and Contents
Rest period. Has travelled to Paris and is now in Belgium.
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 12 id266624
Letters1944 November-DecemberScope and Contents
Describes transferring to Germany, getting 45 new patients in her ward, and being close to battles
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 4 id266578
- id266320
Letters from Allen Galer to Mary, 1937-1945Scope and Contents
Living in Michigan, Allen Galer, born 1918, was Mary's longtime suitor and fiance, though Mary broke the engagement. Allen's numerous letters over the years follow their courtship and the difficulties their long-distance relationship faced. As both corresponded while students, the sub-series also documents college social life in the late 1930s. Allen's letters later tell of his experience training as an army pilot during the war.
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 13 id266636
Letters1937 March-August
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 14 id266642
Letters1937 October-December
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 15 id266646
Letters1938 January-March
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 16 id266654
Letters1938 May-August
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 17 id266664
Letters1938 October-DecemberScope and Contents
Sends a humorous fake marriage license along with one letter, and discusses his new job and personal finances.
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 18 id266666
Letters1939 January-March
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 19 id266680
Letters1939 April-JuneScope and Contents
Hopes Mary can visit him in Michigan for the summer; reacts to Mary's announcement that she wants to study nursing for three years in New Orleans before getting married by stating his impatience to marry her.
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 20 id266688
Letters1939 August-September
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 21 id266696
Letters1939 October-DecemberScope and Contents
Considers breaking the engagement if she does not write to him more often.
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 22 id266706
Letters1940 January-FebruaryScope and Contents
Includes Valentines.
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 23 id266716
Letters1940 March-June
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 24 id266732
Letters1940 July-SeptemberScope and Contents
After Mary stops writing to him and breaks the engagement, Allen requests his class ring back.
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 25 id266740
Letters1940 October-NovemberScope and Contents
Demands explanations for their break up.
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 26 id266754
Letters1941 February-DecemberScope and Contents
Now in military training in North Carolina (Camp Davis for artillery forces), Allen announces he will leave for California to be dispatched overseas in the Philippines as of January 1942.
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 27 id266768
Letters1942 January-1943 JulyScope and Contents
Good-bye letters before leaving for overseas. Later writes about his training in airforce, and news of his friends, mentioning he is not proud of one who is still a civilian. Expects war to last several more years. His June 9, 1943 letter announces he is back to the United States after one year overseas. Hopes to start flight training.
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 28 id266772
Letters1943 September-October
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 29 id266780
Letters1943 November-DecemberScope and Contents
Expresses his happiness that they were able to meet again, and his persistent love, and talks about marriage again. Reflects over his feelings and how he has changed over the years.
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 30 id266788
Letters1944 February-MayScope and Contents
Complains about the difficulties of pilot training.
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 1 id266796
Letters1944 June-JulyScope and Contents
Fails his tests to be pilot, returns to ground forces.
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 2 id266804
Letters1944 August-1945 November
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 13 id266636
- id266808
Letters to Mary from Various Friends and Relatives, 1937-1946
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 3 id266818
Lt. James R. Bellace (Jim)1944 January-FebruaryScope and Contents
Correspondence with Lieutenant James R. "Jim" Bellace. Jim writes from Great Britain and talks about entertainment and social life
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 4 id266834
Lt. Mark L. Cathy1943 September-1944 DecemberScope and Contents
Correspondence with Lieutenant Mark L. Cathy. Writing from various air force training camps in the US, Mark is a friend of Mary's and seems romantically interested in her.
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 5 id266856
Gertie Guggenheimer1939-1940Correspondence with Gertie Guggenheimer.
A friend living in New York city, Gertie appears to work as a secretary in an office. She writes to congratulate Mary on her engagement to Allen and advises her to choose Allen over her studies in New Orleans. Gertie also writes about her worries for her relatives in Europe. Her fiance's parents are still in England and Gertie is trying to get her mother out of Germany.
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 Folder: 6 id266868
Julian Lansdale Jr.1937-1940Correspondence with Julian Lansdale Jr.
Two letters giving various news. Julian refers to Mary as "an old girl friend."
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 7 id266874
Valentines from Southern Baptist Hospital Patients or Colleagues1941, undatedScope and Contents
Valentines from Southern Baptist Hospital Patients or Colleagues. One valentine from "patient Patches" and a love letter from a "Rosanna" ("Rosie-Anne") on paper with Southern Baptist Hospital, New Orleans, LA, letterhead.
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 8 id266880
Letters from Miscellaneous Correspondents1938-1946
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 9 id266882
Blank Christmas and Birthday Cards1944, undated
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 3 id266818
This series brings together various documents kept by Mary from her WWII military service overseas. Several travel booklets are undated and presumed to have been collected by Mary during the war, unless she later went to Western Europe again.
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 10 id266898
Official Military Documents1942-1943Scope and Contents
Duty orders and clearances.
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 11 id266902
Le Havre-Amiens Michelin Road Map, France (in French)
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 Folder: 12 id266908
Postcard Booklet from Mont-Saint-Michel, Normandy, France
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 13 id266910
Postcard Booklets from Brussels, Belgium
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 14 id266914
Souvenir Booklets from the Manneken-Pis, Belgium, and the Westerwald, Germany (mostly in German)
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 15 id266916
Program, Menus, and Travel Ephemera from Germany and England
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 16 id267626
Party Invitation1944 November
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 17 id267628
Camp Kilmer, NJ, Code of Conduct Booklet1945
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 18 id267630
"Scuttlebutt Jr." Newsletter1945 November 3
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 19 id267632
Transportation Documents and Customs Declaration1945
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 20 id267634
List of Belongings
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 21 id267638
Ephemera1924, undatedScope and Contents
1924 Football admission ticket and undated pamphlet "Decorations and Medals of the United States of America."
This series comprises more than 830 photographs documenting Mary's experience as an army nurse during the war. They show nurses and soldiers in army camps, on the road as they travel in Europe, training with weapons, and playing games. They also show cityscapes and landmark buildings, as well as wartime landscapes with bombed towns. The photographs are organized thematically, when possible according to the identified individuals or locations. However, most photographs do not have any caption indicating a time, location, or name of persons.
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 22 id267642
Formal Portaits of Mary F. Switzer
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 23 id267644
Informal Wartime Portraits of Mary F. Switzer
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 24 id267646
Informal Portrait of Allen GalerScope and Contents
Informal portrait of Allen Galer. Includes a note from him on the back.
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 25 id267648
Informal Portraits of Fellow Nurse "Breezie"
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 26 id267650
Informal Portraits of Fellow Nurse Charline and Photographs of her Wedding to Jim
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 27 id267652
Informal Portraits of Soldier "Dimples"1945, undated
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 28 id267654
Informal Portraits of Lt. Velma Clemmer and Lt. Pausy J. Kelly1944, undated
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 29 id267656
Informal Portraits of Nurses, identified
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 30 id267658
Informal Portraits of Nurses, unidentified
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 31 id267660
Informal Portraits of Soldiers, identified
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 32 id267662
Informal Portraits of Soldiers, unidentified
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 33 id267664
Nurses and Soldiers possibly at Castle Cary, England, most identified
- Mixed Materials Box: 3 folder: 1 id267668
Army Camp Scenes with Nurses and Soldiers, identified people or location
- Mixed Materials Box: 3 folder: 2 id267670
Army Camp Scenes with Nurses and Soldiers, unidentified
- Mixed Materials Box: 3 folder: 3 id267672
Nurses' Military TrainingScope and Contents
For other photographs of nurses posing with weapons see informal portraits of Mary and Charline (Box 2, folders 23 and 26).
- Mixed Materials Box: 3 folder: 4 id267674
Hospital Tents and First Aid StationsScope and Contents
Includes one photograph of doctors operating on patients.
- Mixed Materials Box: 3 folder: 5 id267676
Fred Astaire Show at Army Camp
- Mixed Materials Box: 3 folder: 6 id267678
Leisure Time and GamesScope and Contents
Featuring a 1945 baseball game among soldiers
- Mixed Materials Box: 3 folder: 7 id267680
Nurses and Army "On the Road"Scope and Contents
Photographs of nurses and army, includes nurses and soldiers posing by army trucks, trains, and planes as they move across Western Europe
- Mixed Materials Box: 3 folder: 8 id267682
Nurses and Army "On the Road" (2 of 3)Scope and Contents
Photographs of nurses and army, some photographs taken in Germany and some feature signs of boundaries between US and British army zones
- Mixed Materials Box: 3 folder: 9 id267684
Nurses and Army "On the Road"Scope and Contents
Photographs of nurses and army.
- Mixed Materials Box: 3 folder: 10 id267686
Aboard Ship
- Mixed Materials Box: 3 folder: 11 id267688
Photographs of "Our House"
- Mixed Materials Box: 3 folder: 12 id267690
Castle Cary, England
- Mixed Materials Box: 3 folder: 13 id267692
Lord Bath House and Bath Street Scenes, England
- Mixed Materials Box: 3 folder: 14 id267694
London, EnglandScope and Contents
London, England, including 7 photographs by Mary, 24 "Real Photo Snaps", and the 2 envelopes in which the snaps were sold to tourists.
- Mixed Materials Box: 3 folder: 15 id267696
Brussels, BelgiumScope and Contents
Brussels, Belgium, including 10 snaps sold to tourists and the original envelope.
- Mixed Materials Box: 3 folder: 16 id267698
Informal Portraits and Winter Scenes in Verviers, Belgium
- Mixed Materials Box: 3 folder: 17 id267700
Army Scenes and Civilians in Remalard, France
- Mixed Materials Box: 3 folder: 18 id267702
Landscapes and Informal Portraits in Dalhain, France
- Mixed Materials Box: 3 folder: 19 id267706
Paris, France
- Mixed Materials Box: 3 folder: 20 id267708
Versailles, France
- Mixed Materials Box: 3 folder: 21 id267710
Street Scenes and Civilians [France?]
- Mixed Materials Box: 3 folder: 22 id267712
Bomb Damage and Buildings in Aachen, Germany
- Mixed Materials Box: 3 folder: 23 id267714
"Bomb Damage" in Unidentified Towns
- Mixed Materials Box: 3 folder: 24 id267716
"Near Spa," Unknown Country
- Mixed Materials Box: 3 folder: 25 id267718
Miscellaneous Buildings and Cityscapes, unidentified
- Mixed Materials Box: 3 folder: 26 id267720
Miscellaneous Buildings and Cityscapes, unidentified
- Mixed Materials Box: 3 folder: 27 id267722
Miscellaneous Photographs1900s-1940sScope and Contents
14 items that appear unrelated to Mary's wartime experience, includes earlier portraits of unidentified men and women, photographs of children, and of a music band.
- Mixed Materials Box: 3 folder: 28 id267724
Damaged Photographs, Indiscernible Subject Matter
- Mixed Materials Box: 3 folder: 29 id267726
Film Envelopes and Censorship Certificates
- Mixed Materials Box: 4 id267728
Box 4 - Does not CirculateScope and Contents
Nitrate negatives housed in special storage. Ask staff member for consultation. Most negatives correspond to printed photographs in the previous Photograph series. The negatives are thematically organized following the themes delineated in the Photographs series.
*This box does not circulate.*