Scope and Contents: The Charles J. Farley Collection includes papers, photographs, and memorabilia related to his time as an ambulance and camion driver with the American Field Service (AFS) and United States Motor Transport Corps (U.S.M.T.C.) during World War I. The collection contains wartime material, including official material transport orders and memoranda for the U.S.M.T.C. camion units, Farley’s identification card for the American Ambulance Service issued by the French Ministry of War (which includes a passport-sized photograph), clippings and full editions of American and French newspapers, French city maps (including Verdun, Meaux, and a wartime map of Paris with handwritten notations), wartime literature (including a Red Cross magazine, church sermon, pamphlet of poems, a graphic novel documenting the war titled Fragments from France: Part Five), and a bilingual booklet titled "Inter-Allied Rulings on Mechanical Transport Service" from 1918), and AFS promotional material.
In addition to the papers, the collection includes a photographic postcard (5.25” x 3.5”) captioned and sent to Farley by a female friend during the war , as well as five black and white photographic prints (2” x 3”), including two prints of Farley with his camion, and three unidentified images from the war.
The collection also includes several items of memorabilia related to his wartime service, including: two bracelets, each inscribed with his AFS unit number and “Ambulance Américaine”, one of which has charms attached; a cotton armband with a red cross, stamped "Ministère de la Guerre"; a cotton stocking, possibly a wound stocking or a cast protector for a leg; and one trunk with C.J. Farley’s name, “Ambulance Américaine”, and SSU 9 written on it.
While the bulk of the collection was created during World War I, the collection also includes a map showing the United States exhibition sections at the Paris World’s Fair in 1900, as well as post-war correspondence related to medals awarded by the American Field Service and the French Ministry of War.
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