Archival Collections

This collection relates to Eleanor Gifford who served in the special services and her brother Elliott T. Gifford who served as an Aerographer's Mate in the U.S. Navy during World War II. Elliott T. Gifford was killed in action on board the USAT Dorchester when it was sunk on February 3, 1943 by a German submarine. This collection contains documents, newspaper clippings, German event posters, radio transcripts, letters, and photographs predominately from Eleanor M. Gifford.

Helen E. Walsh served in the Women's Army Corps from September 1942 to October 1945. She served as an artificer in Oran, Algeria, North Africa; Caserta, Italy; and Dijon, France. She earned three major battle stars for her service close to the front lines in three major battle areas of the European Theater, including Rome-Arno, North Apennines, and Rhineland. She was a Sergeant Major when she received an honorable medical discharge. Walsh remained active in the National Association of Women's Veterans, and kept extensive scrapbooks about her own service in the WAC, and of World War II in general. The collection contains 1 box of documents and clippings about Walsh during and after her Army service, 1/2 box of photographs Walsh took while serving overseas, 2 artifact boxes containing Walsh's Army equipment and items she collected overseas, and 4 Women's Army Corps uniform pieces.

Mildred Hoffenbloom was a soldier in the Women's Army Corps. She served overseas in London as a part of claims division, and in Paris, as an office manager to the American Engineers. She remained in Paris until V-E Day in May 1945, and was discharged from the Army in July 1945.

The Sonia Visser collection contains one folder with a 24-page typed transcript of an oral history interview. Sonia Visser served in the Women's Army Corps from 1943 to 1945. She experienced public discrimination as a WAC in rural American towns. She served overseas in the Pacific in base port command at Hollandia, New Guinea. While in New Guinea, she experienced attempted sexual assault on two occasions and witnessed the prevalent threat of sexual assault against other women soldiers. She went home and discharged in October 1945, and later married a soldier who had proposed to her on the ship going to New Guinea.

This collection refers to Zelma D. Abarbanel, who served as a Technician Fourth Grade with the WAC Second Detachment during World War II. Abarbanel worked as a stenographer and assistant for the Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia, in the Office of Weapons. The collection includes a transcript of an oral history interview, one letter, the military records of both Abarbanel and her husband, Milton Goldman Abarbanel, and several photographs depicting Abarbanel's life as a WAC.