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Robert Lee Sherrod Papers

An inventory of his papers at Syracuse University

Overview of the Collection

Creator: Sherrod, Robert Lee, 1909-1994.
Title: Robert Lee Sherrod Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1910-1963
Quantity: 25.0 linear ft.
Abstract: Papers of the American journalist, editor, war correspondent. Correspondence, incoming and outgoing (1926-1963); typescript manuscripts for articles, books, interviews, press copy, radio scripts, and speeches; notebooks (1935-1950); photographs (1910-1963); scrapbooks; and printed material. Notable correspondents include James Agee, Claude Auchinleck, Hanson Baldwin, Omar Bradley, James F. Byrnes, Mark W. Clark, James Forrestal, Ford C. Frick, Martha Gellhorn, Raymond Henle, John F. Kennedy, Henry Luce, Joseph W. Martin, Mary Margaret McBride, William C. Menninger, Carl Mydans, Richard L. Neuberger, Chester W. Nimitz, Roger Pineau, Arthur W. Radford, Sam Rayburn, Haru M. Reischauer, James Roosevelt, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Eric Sevareid, David M. Shoup, Holland M. Smith, Time, Inc., Harry S. Truman, Frank W. Wead, and Walter Winchell.
Language: Majority in English, a few items in Japanese and French
Repository: Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries
222 Waverly Avenue
Syracuse, NY 13244-2010
https://library.syracuse.edu/special-collections-research-center

Biographical History

Robert Lee Sherrod (1909-1994) was an American war correspondent, editor, and author. Born on February 8, 1909 in Thomas County, Georgia, he graduated from the University of Georgia in 1929 and began his newspaper career (1929-1935) as a reporter for various newspapers in the south. From 1935-1952, he served with Time and Life magazines as their Washington correspondent, associate editor and War and Far East Correspondent. From 1952-1966, he worked for the Saturday Evening Post as magazine editor, editor and editor-at-large. In 1965, he also took on the responsibilities of editorial coordinator for the Curtis Publishing Company and was named its vice-president in 1965.

Sherrod covered several battles during World War II, and went ashore with the U.S. Marines at the Battle of Tarawa, an experience narrated in his book Tarawa: the story of a Battle (1944). The U. S. Navy Department commended Mr. Sherrod at the Battle of Attu and at the Battle of Tarawa in 1943. In 1944, he was the recipient of the Headlines Club award for war reporting. He also received the Benjamin Franklin award in 1954, and the Overseas Press Club Certificate in 1955.

Sherrod's other books include On to Westward: the Battles of Saipan and Iwo Jima (1945), and History of Marine Corps Aviation in World War II (1952). He co-authored the text for Life's Picture History of World War II (1950) and Kobonshi's Picture History of the Pacific War in Japanese.

Sherrod's first wife, Elizabeth Hudson, whom he married in 1936, died in 1958, leaving two children, John and Robert Lee. In 1961 Mr. Sherrod married Margaret C. Ruff; after their divorce in 1972 he married Mary Gay Labrot Leonhardt, who died in 1978.

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Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Robert Lee Sherrod Papers include biographical material, correspondence, manuscripts, cabled press dispatches, photographs, notebooks, scrapbooks, published material and letters in a frame.

Correspondence comprises both incoming and outgoing correspondence. Subject files include published material, manuscripts, and correspondence. Cables consists of cabled press dispatches written or edited by Mr. Sherrod. Notebooks contain Sherrod's own handwritten notes. Subjects of Photographs include the Aleutian Islands, Attu, Iwo Jima, and Tarawa as well as family, friends, and Sherrod himself. Scrapbooks on various time periods and topics include published material, photographs, and letters. Manuscripts includes manuscripts of articles, books, book reviews, press copy, drawings, radio scripts, interviews, and speeches. Published material contains articles, books, magazine and newspaper clippings, press releases, and other printed items.

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Arrangement of the Collection

Correspondence and subject files are arranged alphabetically. Cables, notebooks, and scrapbooks are arranged chronologically. Manuscripts and published material are arranged alphabetically by type and within that by title.

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Restrictions

Access Restrictions

The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.

Use Restrictions

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

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Related Material

Several of the notebooks in the original collection were returned to the donor in 1973. These are noted in the inventory below.

A few published books have been transferred to Rare Books for separate cataloging, as noted in the inventory below. Please refer to Libraries Search to locate these items.

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Subject Headings

Persons

Agee, James, 1909-1955.
Auchinleck, Claude John Eyre, 1884-1981.
Baldwin, Hanson Weightman, 1903-1991.
Bradley, Omar Nelson, 1893-1981.
Byrnes, James F. (James Francis), 1882-1972.
Clark, Mark W. (Mark Wayne), 1896-1984.
Forrestal, James, 1892-1949.
Frick, Ford C.
Gellhorn, Martha, 1908-1998.
Henle, Raymond, 1899-1974.
Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963.
Luce, Henry Robinson, 1898-1967.
Martin, Joseph W. (Joseph William), 1884-1968.
McBride, Mary Margaret, 1899-1976.
Menninger, William Claire, 1899-1966.
Mydans, Carl.
Neuberger, Richard L. (Richard Lewis), 1912-1960.
Nimitz, Chester W. (Chester William), 1885-1966.
Pineau, Roger, 1916-1993.
Radford, Arthur William.
Rayburn, Sam, 1882-1961.
Reischauer, Haru Matsukata, 1915-
Roosevelt, James, 1907-1991.
Schlesinger, Arthur M., Jr. (Arthur Meier), 1917-2007.
Sevareid, Eric, 1912-1992.
Sherrod, Robert Lee, 1909-1994.
Shoup, David M. (David Monroe), 1904-1983.
Smith, Holland M. (Holland McTyeire), 1882-1967.
Truman, Harry S., 1884-1972.
Wead, Frank W. (Frank Wilber), 1895-1947.
Winchell, Walter, 1897-1972.

Corporate Bodies

Time, inc.

Subjects

Editors -- United States.
Journalists -- United States.
Operation Crossroads, Marshall Islands, 1946.
Saipan, Battle of, Northern Mariana Islands, 1944.
War correspondents -- United States.
World War, 1939-1945 -- Journalists.

Genres and Forms

Articles.
Awards.
Bills of sale.
Clippings (information artifacts)
Correspondence.
Dispatches.
Drawings (visual works)
Interviews.
Manuscripts for publication.
Notebooks.
Photographs.
Press releases.
Radio scripts.
Receipts (financial records)
Scrapbooks.
Speeches (documents)
Telegrams.

Occupations

Editors.
Journalists.
War correspondents.

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Robert Lee Sherrod Papers,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries

Acquisition Information

Gift of Robert L. Sherrod, 1966.

Finding Aid Information

Created by: --
Date: Jan 1967
Revision history: 10 Jul 2008 - converted to EAD (MRC); 23 Nov 2011 - noted returned journals (MRC); 31 May 2016 - inventory checked, some items rehoused, prepped for SULF (MS/MRC)

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Inventory

Correspondence
Incoming
Box 1 A
Box 1 Agee, James
Box 1 Alexander, Roy
Box 1 Alpha Tau Omega
Box 1 Auchinleck, Claude
Box 1 Aulick, June
Box 1 B
Box 1 Baldwin, Hanson
Box 1 Belknap, Walter K.
Box 1 Billingsley, Sherman
Box 1 Block, Herb
Box 1 Board of Education, Thomasville, Georgia
Box 1 Boutell, C. B.
Box 1 Bradley, Omar N.
Box 1 Buckley, William E.
Box 1 Bush, James D., Jr.
Box 1 Byrnes, James F.
Box 1 C
Box 2 Canadian Academy
Box 2 Cates, Clifton
Box 2 Childs, Marquis
Box 2 Clark, Mark W.
Box 2 Collins, J. Lawton
Box 2 Cornell University
Box 2 D
Box 2 Duell, Sloane and Pearce, Inc. 1943-1955 (2 folders)
Box 2 E
Box 2 Estes, Mrs. Charles T.
Box 2 F
Box 2 Fischer, Marion
Box 2 Forrestal, James
Box 2 Fortune
Box 2 Frick, Ford
Box 2 Foreign Service of the U. S. A.
Box 2 G
Box 3 Gellhorn, Martha
Box 3 Georgia, University of
Box 3 Gray, William P.
Box 3 Gruenther, Alfred M.
Box 3 H
Box 3 Hackney, James
Box 3 [Lord] Halifax
Box 3 Hall, Benn
Box 3 Hamilton, Thomas, Jr.
Box 3 Haverford School
Box 3 Henle, Ray
Box 3 Hill School
Box 3 Howard, Alan
Box 3 Hulburd, David
Box 3 I
Box 3 Imperial War Museum
Box 3 J
Box 3 Jannell, Anne
Box 3 K
Box 3 Kennedy, Edward M.
Box 3 Kennedy, John F.
Oversize 2 Kennedy, John F. - 2 letters, framed
Box 3 Kennedy, Robert F.
Box 4 L
Box 4 Lambs Servicemen's Morale Corps
Box 4 Landon School
Box 4 Life
Box 4 Luce, Henry and Clare Booth
Box 4 Lyons, Leonard
Box 4 M - Me
Box 4 Mi
Box 4 Marin, Munoz
Box 4 The Marine Corps Gazette
Box 4 A. N. Marquis Company
Box 4 Martin, Joseph W., Jr.
Box 4 Matthews, Francis P.
Box 4 Matthews, T. S.
Box 4 McBride, Mary Margaret
Box 4 Menninger, William C., M.D.
Box 4 Merwin, Davis
Box 4 Monahan, James
Box 4 Mountbatten
Box 4 Mydans, Carl and Shelley
Box 4 N
Box 4 N. S. Bienstock
Box 4 Nakano, Goro
Box 5 Neuberger, Richard L.
Box 5 N. Y. Herald Tribune
Box 5 Nimitz, Admiral C. W.
Box 5 O
Box 5 O'Connor, Mr. and Mrs. Basil
Box 5 P
Box 5 Parker, Mr. and Mrs. David B.
Box 5 Pineau, Roger 1951-1958 (2 folders)
Box 5 Provine, Christine
Box 5 Q
Box 5 R
Box 5 Radford, A. W.
Box 5 Rayburn, Sam
Box 5 The Reader's Digest
Box 6 Readers ( Saturday Evening Post)
Box 6 Red Cross
Box 6 Reischauer, Haru Matsukata
Box 6 Remedial Education Center
Box 6 Roosevelt, James
Box 6 Rosenthal, Dr. Harold
Box 6 S - Sn
Box 6 So
Box 6 Saint Albans
Box 6 Sandoz, Inc.
Box 6 Sanford Preparatory School
Box 6 Saturday Evening Post
Box 6 Schlesinger, Arthur, Jr.
Box 6 Servicemen's families - letters from
Box 6 Sevareid, Eric
Box 6 Shepherd, Lemuel C., Jr.
Box 7 Sherrod, Mrs. Elizabeth Hudson
Box 7 Sherrod, John
Box 7 Sherrod, Joseph A.
Box 7 Sherrod, Mrs. Joseph A.
Box 7 Sherrod, Joseph Jr.
Box 7 Sherrod, Leone
Box 7 Sherrod, Louise
Box 7 Sherrod, Olin Jay
Box 7 Sherrod, Robert Jr.
Box 7 Sherrod, Robert E.
Box 7 Shoup, David M.
Box 7 Smith, Edna Loftus
Box 7 Smith, Holland M.
Box 7 Sobol, Lewis
Box 7 T
Box 8 Tartar, Jerome
Box 8 Tarawa fan mail
Box 8 Time, Inc. 1931-1950 (3 folders)
Box 9 Time, Inc. 1951-1953, undated (2 folders)
Box 9 Correspondence books 1945-1947 - incoming and outgoing, Time
Box 10 Correspondence books 1947-1948 - incoming and outgoing, Time
Box 10 Treasury Department
Box 10 Truman, Harry S.
Box 10 Turner, Gorden B.
Box 10 U
Box 10 United Press Associations
Box 10 U. S. Army
Box 10 U. S. Marine Corps
Box 10 U. S. Navy
Box 10 U. S. Naval Institute
Box 10 V
Box 10 W
Box 10 W. C. and A. N. Miller
Box 10 War Department
Box 11 Wead, Frank
Box 11 Wilson, Earl
Box 11 Winchell, Walter
Box 11 Worley, Eugene
Box 11 W. Colton Leigh, Inc.
Box 11 XYZ
Box 11 Telegrams A-Z Unidentifiable
Box 11 Not identified
Outgoing
Box 11 [General] 1926-1942 (4 folders)
Box 12 [General] 1943-1944 (3 folders)
Box 12 Saipan controversy 1944-1945
Box 12 [General] 1945-1949 (4 folders)
Box 13 [General] 1950-1956 (8 folders)
Box 14 [General] 1957-1958 (12 folders)
Box 14 [General] 1959, Jan-Mar (3 folders)
Box 15 [General] 1959 Apr-Dec (9 folders)
Box 15 [General] 1960 Jan-Apr (4 folders)
Box 16 [General] 1960 May-Dec (8 folders)
Box 16 [General] 1961 Jan-Jun (6 folders)
Box 17 [General] 1961 Jul-Dec (6 folders)
Box 17 [General] 1962-1963 (4 folders)
Box 17 Telegrams 1942-1958, undated
Box 18 [General] Undated
Correspondence of others, Sherrod family
Box 18 Mrs. Elizabeth Hudson
Box 18 John Sherrod
Box 18 Mrs. Margaret Carson
Box 18 Robert Sherrod, Jr.
Subject files
Box 19 Alaska-Attu 1943
Box 19 Applications
Box 19 Artifacts - includes a Japanese soldier's senninbari or "One Thousand Stitch Belt"
Box 19 Australia 1941-1942 (2 folders)
Box 19 Awards and certificates
Box 19 B-36 controversy 1949 (2 folders)
Box 20 Biographies
Box 20 Calling cards, tickets, time tables, menus
Box 20 China
Box 20 Citations
Box 20 Dutch East Indies 1946
Financial
Box 20 Banks 1925-1953
Box 20 Bills and receipts, Europe 1951
Box 20 Bills and receipts, hotel 1930-1949
Box 21 Bills and receipts, miscellaneous 1932-1953
Box 21 Earnings 1941-1951
Box 21 Expense accounts 1936-1957
Box 21 Insurance
Box 21 Saturday Evening Post 1954
Financial and legal
Box 21 Duell, Sloan and Pearce 1943-1954
Box 21 Kobun-sha 1952-1956
Box 21 Fortune articles 1935-1936
Box 21 Galley proofs for Tarawa 1944
Box 21 Hardbooks 1928-1950
Box 22 Hawaii 1944
Box 22 History of Marine Corps Aviation 1952-1954
Box 22 Identification cards 1936-1951
Box 22 Income taxes 1937-1957 (2 folders)
Box 22 India 1946
Box 22 Iwo Jima 1945
Box 22 Korea 1951-1953
Box 22 Lattimore Owen 1938-1952
Box 22 Legal documents 1942-1951
Box 22 Life's Picture History of World War II 1950-1963
Lists
Box 23 Books, courses, places, words 1927-1940
Box 23 Directories 1925-1929, 1934
Box 23 Graves
Box 23 Inventories
Box 23 Persons, civilian 1940-1959
Box 23 Persons, military 1943-1952
Box 23 Maps
Box 23 Medical record, family 1942-1959
Box 24 Memos (mimeograph), Armed Forces 1942, 1954
Box 24 New Guinea 1942
Box 24 Notes
Box 24 Notes from secretary 1944, 1962
Box 24 Notes to secretary
Box 24 Okinawa 1945
Box 24 Operation Crossroads, Bikini [Atoll] 1946
Box 24 Organizations
Box 24 Organization charts
Box 24 Passports
Box 24 Programs 1926, 1927, 1929, 1931, 1936, 1938, 1939
Box 25 Programs 1941, 1942, 1944, 1945, 1949, 1950-1955, 1957, 1959, undated
Box 25 Propaganda, World War II
Box 25 Research Material "Op. 23" 1949 (2 folders)
Box 25 Round the World Story 1945
Saipan controversy
See Manuscripts: Articles: Saipan Controversy and Manuscripts: Notes: Saipan Controversy
Action report 1944
Returned to donor, 1973
Manuscripts
Returned to donor, 1973
Proceedings of a Board of Officers
Returned to donor, 1973
Published material
Returned to donor, 1973
Sherrod family
Box 26 Elizabeth Sherrod
Box 26 John Sherrod 1938, 1942, 1946-1961 (2 folders)
Box 26 Mr. and Mrs. Joseph A. Sherrod
Box 26 Robert Sherrod, Jr. 1939-1956 (2 folders)
Box 27 Robert Sherrod, Jr. 1957-1959
Box 27 Statistics
Box 27 Tarawa 1943, 1953
Box 27 Tarawa, pre and post 1943
Box 27 Tarawa: The Story of a Battle
Box 27 Time magazine 1940-1962
Box 27 [J. Walter] Thompson Co.
Box 27 Travel authorizations 1943-1945, 1949
Box 28 U. S. budget 1950-1953
Box 28 U.S. Marine Corps
Box 28 U.S. Naval Ships
Box 28 U.S. Navy 1944, 1945, 1951
Box 28 U.S. War, Navy Department Unification 1949
Box 28 Warfare 1949
Box 28 Western Pacific Trip 1944
Cables
Press dispatches
Box 29 Time Magazine 1942-1946, 1948 (4 folders)
Box 29 Time Magazine 1949 Feb.-Dec (2 folders)
Box 30 Time Magazine 1950 (2 folders)
Box 30 T ime Magazine 1951, Jan-Oct (3 folders)
Box 31 Time Magazine 1951, Nov-Dec
Box 31 Time Magazine 1952 Jan-Apr, undated (2 folders)
Notebooks
Box 31 [untitled] 1935, 1936, 1938, 1941
Box 31 [untitled] 1940-1941 - pre-war
Box 31 [untitled] 1941
[untitled] 1942-1943 - Australia
Returned to donor, 1973
[untitled] 1943-1944 - Aleutians, Wake, Tarawa
Returned to donor, 1973
[untitled] 1943-1944 - Aleutians, Wake, Tarawa
Returned to donor, 1973
[untitled] 1944-1945 - Saipan, Okinawa
Returned to donor, 1973
[untitled] 1945 - Saigon, South China, Iwo Jima, Okinawa
Returned to donor, 1973
Box 32 [untitled] 1950
Photographs
Box 32 Aleutians
Box 32 Attu 1943
Box 32 Iwo Jima
Box 32 Self, family, friends
Scrapbooks also contain photographs.
Box 32 Tarawa
Box 32 Miscellaneous 1936-1937
Box 32 Miscellaneous 1942
Box 32 Miscellaneous 1951, 1945, 1963, undated
Scrapbooks
Box 32 [Untitled] 1925-1935
Box 32 [Untitled] May 28, 1932 - March 17, 1933
Box 33 [Untitled] 1933 - newspaper clippings
Box 33 [Untitled] 1942-1945 - mostly Tarawa
Box 33 [Untitled] 1946-1947
Box 33 [Untitled] 1952
Oversize 1 Photographs
Manuscripts
Articles
Box 33 Drawings of Robert Sherrod by others
Box 33 About Captain Woodyard 1954
Box 33 Admiral Reeves 1950
Box 33 American Nurses and Doctors in Korea
Box 34 Australia Tries a Blood Transfusion 1953
Box 34 Chiang-Kai Shek's Formosa
Box 34 Comments on Mr. Huie's Reader's Digest Series
Box 34 Bob Jackson 1940
Box 34 Darndest Battle We Ever Fought
Box 34 The H-Bomb and The Tuna
Box 34 How Can Japan Survive?
Box 34 How The War Ended In Korea 1950
Box 34 Is This Our Next War? 1954
Box 34 Kashmir
Box 34 Kyoto
Box 34 Last Chance In The Philippines 1953
Box 34 A Layman's Guide to The Military 1951
Box 34 Look Where They're Holding The Olympics 1953
Box 34 Most Expensive City In The World 1953
Box 34 1941
Box 34 On Looking For A Job in New York 1931
Box 34 Our Korean Dilemma 1953
Box 34 Palm Beach Was Built Upon Sand 1935
Box 34 Saipan Controversy
See also Notes: Saipan Controversy in this series, and Subject files: Saipan Controversy
Box 34 Singapore 1955
Box 34 Tarawa Revisited
Box 34 The Trouble About Islands 1952
Box 34 The Trouble About Paradise
Box 34 Vacationing on Three Dollars a Day 1954
Box 34 What Shall We Do About American Micronesia? 1952
Box 34 What's Eating Nehru? 1954
Box 34 Young Indonesia Flirts With Calamity 1953
Box 34 Corrections and inserts
Box 34 Incomplete
Box 35 Outlines for
Box 35 Untitled 1941, undated
Books
Box 35 Iwo Jima (incomplete)
Box 35 Kobun-sha's Picture History of Pacific War 1952
Box 35 On to Westward 1945
Box 35 Tarawa: The Story of a Battle 1944, 1954
Box 35 Tarawa (incomplete)
Box 35 Outlines
Box 35 Drawings 1943, 1957
Box 35 Interviews
Notes
Box 35 [General] 1927-1935
Box 35 [General] 1940, 1952, undated
Box 36 [General] 1949-1951
Box 36 B-36 hearing 1949
Box 36 James Forrestal suicide 1962
Box 36 India
Box 36 Korea Medical History 1954
Box 36 Life Pictorial History of World War II 1950
Box 36 Marine Aviation History 1948
Box 36 Saipan Controversy
See also Articles: Saipan Controversy in this series (above), and Subject files: Saipan Controversy
Box 36 Press copy 1941-1943 (3 folders)
Box 37 Press copy 1945, 1950-1951, undated
Box 37 Radio scripts 1939, 1942-1945, 1950-1952, undated
Box 37 Short story, untitled
Box 37 Speeches
Box 37 Of others
Published material
Box 37 Advertisements
Box 37 Articles about
Box 37 Articles by 1928-1929, 1935, 1938 (3 folders)
Box 38 Articles by 1942-1945, 1947, 1949, 1951, 1953, 1955, 1970, undated - magazine issue from 1970 also contains article by Ed Diamond (3 folders)
Box 39 Articles by and about others
Box 39 Book reviews by
Books
I Can Tell It Now - anthology with article by Sherrod, "Secret Conference with General Marshall"
Transferred to Rare Books for cataloging.
Box 39 A Concise History of the Pacific War, Kobunsha 1956 - in Japanese; signed by Sherrod (2 volumes)
History of Marine Corps Aviation in World War II
Transferred to Rare Books for cataloging.
Box 39 Iwo Jima (in Japanese)
Box 39 Kobunsha's Picture History of the Pacific War, Kobunsha 1952 - in Japanese (2 volumes)
On to Westward 1945
Transferred to Rare Books for cataloging.
Box 40 Life’s Picture History of World War II, Time Inc. 1950
Box 40 Saipan: Decision in the Central Pacific, Kobunsha 1951 - in Japanese; translated by Goro Nakano, signed by Sherrod
Box 40 Tarawa, Duell, Sloan and Pearce 1944 - signed by Sherrod
Box 40 Tarawa, Pocket Books 1944 - signed by Sherrod
Box 40 Tarawa, Duell, Sloan and Pearce 1954 - 10th anniversary edition, signed and inscribed by Sherrod
Box 40 Tarawa, Overseas Editions 1944 - in French; signed by Sherrod
Box 40 Tarawa, Kobunsha 1950 - in Japanese; translated by Goro Nakano, signed by Sherrod
Box 41 The Fourth Marine Division in World War II, edited by Carl W. Proeh, Infantry Journal Press 1946
Oversize 2 Magazine clippings, framed
Newsletters
Box 41 American Aviation Daily
Box 41 F.Y.I. mimeographed
Box 41 Matson Line Wireless
Box 41 Newspaper clippings about
Box 41 Newspaper clippings by
Box 41 Newspaper clippings by or about others
Newspapers
Box 41 The Chatter Sheet, edited by Sherrod
Box 41 Foreign
Box 41 Servicemen
Box 41 Miscellaneous
Box 42 Press releases (2 folders)
Box 42 Radio scripts 1944
Box 42 U. S. Government publications

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