Letters Home – Boot Camp
On December 7, 1941, Richard Tobin McCurdy was stationed at Camp Wheeler, Georgia and looking forward to holiday leave when he could visit his family back in New Orleans. Below are excerpts from...
View ArticleCelebrating Christmas on the Home Front
Curious about how World War II impacted the celebration of Christmas on the Home Front? So were we! In honor of tomorrow’s holiday, we’ve put together a list of fun yule-tide facts. Fewer men at home...
View Article‘White Christmas’ Season Begins
Seventy years ago today marked the first week in an unprecedented seventy-seven day run at the top of the charts for the biggest-selling song of the 20th Century: Bing Crosby’s rendition of Irving...
View ArticleHappy Franksgiving
In the years 1939-1941, at the behest of President Franklin Roosevelt upon urging from retailers, Thanksgiving was celebrated a week earlier, on the third Thursday in November rather than the fourth....
View ArticleA Somber Christmas – December 20, 1942, LIFE Magazine
The December 20, 1942, LIFE magazine cover featured the “Lonely Wife,” a dramatic interpretation of the women left behind. The cover description reads: A full-page ad on page 1 asked Americans to avoid...
View ArticleChristmas Eve from Stalag IIIC: “Put my drumstick in cold storage”
Calvin Benedict served with the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division. He was captured in Normandy on 7 June 1944 and spent the remainder of the war in Stalag IIIC. On Christmas Eve...
View ArticleLetters Home: “best not to send the candy”
70 years ago today, John H. Thornton wrote from New Caledonia to his sweetheart, Miss Nell Fagan in East Point, Georgia. He gently provides some very useful information to Miss Fagan regarding the...
View ArticleWorker Wednesday: Holiday Edition
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the December 1943 edition of the Higgins Industries publication, The Eureka News Bulletin. Post by Curator Kimberly Guise.
View ArticleChristmas 1944: Stille Nacht
Seventy years ago this holiday season, some American servicemen were celebrating in POW camps across the world. They did not know it, but it was the last holiday season that they would spend in...
View Article“Am Safe, A Prisoner of War in Germany…”
On December 25, 1944, Carroll Sammetinger began his Christmas postcard to his parents, “Am Safe, A Prisoner of War in Germany; do not worry.” Thousands of Americans were captured during the Battle of...
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