Lawrence B. Cummings Collection, 1916-1917

The Lawrence B. Cummings Collection consists of two bound photographic albums, two folders of loose album pages, two diaries, and personal effects that document Cummings’s service with the American Field Service (AFS.)  The bound albums and loose album pages date from September 1916 to February 1917, and depict AFS drivers in Section Sanitaire [Etats-] Unis (SSU) 3 and 4 posed in front of their ambulances, as well as images of camp life, landscapes, field hospitals, and battlefield fortifications and destruction on the Verdun and Argonne fronts.  The majority of the photographs in the collection were taken by Lawrence Cummings and fellow SSU 4 ambulance driver Eric Fowler.  The loose album pages also include official French Army photographs that portray camp life, soldiers, and battlefield scenes on the Verdun front.

The collection also contains two diaries. The first diary, dated September 15-December 2, 1916, begins with Cummings’s motivations for joining AFS. The second diary, dated December 23, 1916-August 13, 1917, ends with his motivations for entering the U.S. Army after the U.S. joined the war in 1917. Both diaries are written to his two sons and consequently he gives a vivid picture of his work, his environment, living conditions, responsibilities, and detailed descriptions of his fellow drivers. He includes descriptions of trenches, troop movements, AFS unit movements, care given the wounded, aspects of wartime society and civilian behavior, and his response to his work and things he saw during his service. The diaries contain indexes of names and subjects, as well as page numbers that are a later addition. Cummings’s diaries compliment the collection’s photographic material through his descriptions of the battlefields and destruction along the Argonne and Verdun fronts.

The collection also contains personal effects, including the Daily Mail (a British newspaper dated May 23, 1917), wrapping paperthat formerly covered an Indianapolis Ambulance Plaque (undated), and a postcard detailing the discovery of the plaque (dated August 1, 1917.)