Administrative Information

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Use Restrictions

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Preferred Citation

Additional Material, Joseph M. Broccoli Great War Collection, 1914-1923, 1959, Accession #10875-af, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

This material was given to the University of Virginia Library by Dr. Matthew J. Bruccoli, Columbia, South Carolina, on May 31, 1995.

Scope and Content Information

This addition to the Joseph M. Bruccoli Great War Collection consists of ca. fifty items, ca. 1914-1923, and 1959, including the letters of Private William S. Gaines (d. 1923), Danville, Illinois, to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Gaines, 1917-1919, including a letter from the Railway Mail Service Office concerning the death of clerk William S. Gaines (1923 Feb 26) and a printed program concerning the Lee Memorial Reunion at Urban Park (1917 Aug 16); three embroidered souvenirs of the World War I period, probably all from France; two black & white photographs of the World War I U.S. Army unit to which Joseph M. Bruccoli belonged, sitting in front of its barracks, with the second being an enlarged detail of the first; and correspondence and notes of Matthew J. Bruccoli, 1959, concerning John Monk Saunders (1897-1940), author of various screenplays about World War I, including Wings starring Buddy Rogers, Richard Arlin, and Gary Cooper, and Dawn Patrol. Correspondents in the file on Saunders include Arthur Kyle Davis, Jr., Lily H. Dabney (Mrs. Richard Heath Dabney), Fay Wray Riskin, Elliott Springs, and Robert C. Saunders.

The correspondence of Private William S. Gaines, member of A Battery, 67th Brigade, 42nd Division, 149th U.S. Field Artillery, American Expeditionary Forces, begins on July 12, 1917, and includes letters discussing the following: smallpox and typhoid shots (1917 Jul 20); his duty at the stables (1917 Aug 18); departure from Fort Sheridan and arrival at Camp Mills, Long Island, joining 28,000 men of the "Rainbow Division" (1917 Sep 6); the 42nd Division passing in review before the Secretary of War, Newton D. Baker (1917 Sep 25); his promotion to 1st class private (1917 Sep 29); preparations for going overseas (1917 Oct 1, 9, & 11); a list of some music popular with the soldiers (1917 Oct 11); arrival in France prior to Halloween (n.d.); location back of the horse line where he helps care for the horses and mules (1918 May 5); observation of some French women doing embroidery work (1918 May 26); being too busy chasing the Hun hordes to write much (1918 Aug 26); his arm broken by the kick of a French mare and his stay in two new hospitals (1918 Sep 16, Oct 4); passes issued for leave while in Europe (1919 Jan 27, Feb 10); and the last letter written while with the Army of Occupation in Ahrweiler, Germany (1919 Mar 2).