Appleton and Wolcott Family Collection, 1916-1993
| Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs
More Extent Information
Arrangement
Abstract
Administrative/Biographical History
Oliver Wolcott was born April 7, 1891, to Roger Wolcott (39th Governor of Massachusetts) and Edith Baker Prescott. He graduated from Harvard University (Class of 1913) and Harvard Law School (Class of 1915). From February to July 1916 he served as a Sous-Chef (assistant leader) of Section Sanitaire [Etats-] Unis (SSU) 2 of the American Field Service (AFS), a volunteer ambulance organization serving with the French Army in World War I. SSU 2 was stationed on the Verdun front in France, which became the longest and one of the most devastating battles of the war. Wolcott was then called to the Mexican border, as a Lieutenant of Troop B of the Massachusetts National Guard. When the United States entered the First World War in 1917, Wolcott returned to France as Captain of Troop B, now called the Headquarters Troop of the 26th Infantry Division (Yankee Division), and as an aide-de-camp to Major General Clarence R. Edwards. War service was a family affair -- Wolcott’s mother, Edith Prescott, was a YMCA canteen worker in France from November 1917 to February 1919.
Sybil Appleton was born December 28, 1899, to Randolph Appleton and Helen Winter. From March to August 1921, she and her mother went to France as volunteers with the American Committee for Devastated France, an organization incorporated in March 1918 and headed by Anne Morgan (1873-1952) and Anne Murray Dike (1879-1929), which provided emergency relief and restoration aid to the citizens of the Aisne region of France after World War I.
The American Committee for Devastated France was known in France as the Comité Américain pour les Régions Dévastées (CARD). It was staffed by American women, many of them professionals and doctors who lived in barracks and worked long hours. The organization raised close to five million dollars and spearheaded a wide variety of restoration projects in France before disbanding in 1926. It was headquartered in the seventeenth-century Château de Blérancourt, which Anne Morgan purchased and later donated to the town to be re-purposed as the Musée Franco-Américain du Château de Blérancourt (Franco-American Museum at the Château de Blérancourt).
Oliver Wolcott and Sybil Appleton met after Appleton returned from France. They were married in December 1922, and it is likely that Appleton continued to use her maiden name. Wolcott worked as an attorney. The couple had three children, Helen (born 1923), Augusta (born 1926), and Oliver (born 1930.) Wolcott continued his affiliation with AFS, serving on their board when the ambulance service was reactivated during World War II.
Oliver Wolcott passed away March 11, 1967. Sybil Appleton passed away December 15, 1973.
Subjects (links to similar collections)American Committee for Devastated France
American Field Service (American Ambulance Field Service)
American Field Service--SSU 12
Appleton, Sybil, 1899-1973
Harvard University
Massachusetts National Guard, Infantry Division, 26th
Section Sanitaire [États-] Unis (SSU)
United States. Army. Infantry Division, 26th
Wolcott, Oliver, 1891-1967
World War, 1914-1918
World War, 1914-1918--Medical Care--France
Forms of Material (links to similar genres) Administrative Information
The collection includes materials created and/or collected by Oliver Wolcott and Sybil Appleton, documenting their experiences in the American Field Service and American Committee for Devastated France, respectively, during World War I. Most of Oliver Wolcott’s materials are in their original formats, while most of the material related to Appleton consists of photocopies of originals.
Original Oliver Wolcott materials in the collection include the collar insignia of the French Automobile Service (red embroidery on brown felt) from 1916. The collection also includes original letters of Oliver Wolcott to his mother Edith Prescott during the same period. Other materials in the collection include a 1993 transcription of these letters, edited with an introduction by Wolcott’s son, Oliver Wolcott, Jr., a matted reproduction of a sepia-toned photograph of Wolcott in uniform in 1917, and high quality photocopies of pages from a photographic album depicting SSU 2 in World War I.
There is also an original handwritten diary containing entries from February to July 1916, when Wolcott served with Section Sanitaire [Etats-] Unis (SSU) 2 of the American Field Service (AFS.) During this period, he was stationed in or visited places such as Verdun, Bar-le-Duc, Souilly, and Revigny in France. The diary begins with a description of the boat voyage over to Europe with a group of other AFS drivers, and includes descriptions of locations they visited while overseas, troop movements, gas attacks, weaponry, aviation equipment, experiencing being shelled by German troops, interactions with both civilians and servicemen, and his time off-duty. This diary also contains straightforward and detailed descriptions of injuries and death.
Original Sybil Appleton materials in the collection include eleven photographic prints and eleven negatives taken by Appleton during the course of her work with the American Committee for Devastated France (ACDF) from March to August in 1921. Images include ruins, landscapes, and shots of a Croix-de-Guerre ceremony. The collection also includes a high quality photocopy of Appleton’s photo album, containing many images of women working in France with ACDF. There are photocopies of Appleton’s letters to her mother, written between March and August 1921, and a photocopy of Appleton’s diary from January-September 1921. The most detailed entries in the diary are dated before Appleton’s time in France. In France, Appleton made a few sporadic entries. Finally, there is a photocopy of a 1922 pamphlet describing the work of the American Committee for Devastated France, a photocopy of a 1922 note to Appleton from noted landscape designer Fletcher Steele, and a photocopy of an extract from 1921 Minutes of the Municipal Council of Mairie de Coucy-la-Ville, France, expressing happiness for the work completed by the Comité Américain pour les Régions Dévastées (known as the American Committee for Devastated France in English.)