Wilbur R. Bernardi Collection, 1941-1998 | Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs

The Wilbur R. Bernardi Collection contains material documenting his time with the American Field Service (AFS),including Bernardi’s AFS identification card, Geneva card, Selective Service classification cards, and documents from his application process, as well as Italian tourist maps, magazine clippings, armed forces booklets published during World War II, and a collection of poems titled “Onward Christian Soldiers!” The collection also includes a detailed wartime photograph and negative collection (with handwritten captions and labels on thin sheets of paper, which were originally placed over the photographs), and post-war correspondence wherein Bernardi enlisted the aid of his fellow drivers to identify the individuals and locations depicted in his wartime photographs and negatives.

The collection also contains artifacts that Bernardi collected during his service as an ambulance driver, including his sterling silver AFS identification bracelet, a 4 x 7 wooden sign painted by a British soldier when Bernardi was assigned to the 8^th Indian Division (which he affixed to the front of his ambulance), shoulder patches of the 8^th Indian and 78^th Divisions, a Red Cross flag and “Sons in Service” flag of unknown origin, a black officer’s map case that belonged to a German medical officer (formerly contained two maps), a teak wood carved letter opener that he picked up as a souvenir from the port at Madagascar on his way to Egypt in 1943, a marker flag for German land mines, and a piece of shrapnel that tore through his bedroll after he had crossed the Rapido River during the Battle of Monte Cassino. A cassette tape detailing the artifacts was also included, which was created by Bernardi at the time he donated the collection to the Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs.