Administrative Information

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open to all researchers.

Conditions Governing Use

Before publishing quotations or excerpts from any materials, permission must be obtained from the Special Collections Research Center, and the holder of the copyright, if not Swem Library.

Preferred Citation

Colorado River Relocation Center Scrapbook, Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, College of William and Mary.

Acquisition Information

The materials were acquired by Special Collections Research Center on 00/00/2008.

Processing Information

The contents of the scrapbook were removed from the scrapbook for preservation reasons. The original order of the materials was maintained.

Biographical Note

Information about this individual or organization may be available in the Special Collections Research Center Wiki

Scope and Contents

This scrapbook of a female employee at the Colorado River Relocation Center in Poston, Arizona includes photographs, a poem, programs, correspondence, and other material. The Colorado River Relocation Center is also known as the Poston Relocation Center and was one of the sites internment camps created for Japanese Americans and Japanese nationals by the U.S. government during World War II. Poston is located in present day La Paz County, Arizona. The woman who created this scrapbook, which has been disassembled, is presumed to have been a white federal employee.

The collection includes an undated handwritten description of Poston, Arizona, which makes reference to earlier mostly unsuccessful attempts to settle the town. A letter dated July 20, 1944, is written to Duncan Mills, Project Director from Pauline Bates Brown, Reports Officer of the Colorado River Relocation Project requesting a Junior Reports Officer to assist with clerical work.

The photographs in the collection are mostly of a woman or a group of women in what appears to be Colorado with some photographs of Japanese American internees in groups, performing on stage, and some groups of those presumed to be employees and internees. Subjects include: Snow scenes, woman in bed and at window of brick house, women sitting in front of housing units, women with horses, three women beside a river and inside a photo booth, family groups, women in the city, group of 20 Japanese American young people, a stage set for a performance by the Japanese American young people, Grandview Hotel, pueblo ruins, and small group and individual photos of Japanese American internees. Only one photograph is labeled, "Marie and Dorothy."

Further items included in the scrapbook: “Amusements, Where to Go and What to See, Atlantic City” brochure for the week of December 23, 1944; a program for “Porter, Please,” written and produced by Masqueraders, December 10-11, 1943; and a program for the “Political Platform Luncheon, Basic Recreation Class No. 25, American University,” November 4, 1944, with the names of women attendees on the cover.

Four employment bulletins from the Red Cross are in the collection: Red Cross, “General Guide for Selecting Recreation Workers for Service in Hospitals of the Army and Navy”…Women, June 1943; Red Cross, “General Guide for Selecting Recreation Workers for Able-Bodied Troops on Military Posts and Naval Stations” …Women, June 1943; Red Cross, Employment Opportunities, November 1943; Red Cross, “General Guide for Selecting Assistant Program Directors, American Red Cross Clubs Overseas…Woman,” June 1943.

Index Terms

Genre/Form of Material:

• Scrapbooks

Topical Term:

• Japanese Americans--Evacuation and relocation--1939-1945
• World War, 1939-1945--United States--Scrapbooks
• World War, 1939-1945--Women--United States

Additional Information