By Nicole Milano
Title: American Field Service World War II Photographic Collection, 1939-1956
Predominant Dates:1940-1945
ID: RG2/002
Creator: American Field Service
Extent: 15.09 Cubic Feet. More info below.
Arrangement:
This collection is partially processed by genre into the following four series: Prints, Negatives, Lantern Slides, and Albums.
See the individual series descriptions for more information.
Languages: English
The American Field Service (AFS) was an ambulance organization founded in World War I and reactivated in 1939 under the leadership of Director General Stephen Galatti. American volunteers drove ambulances in France, North Africa, the Middle East, Italy, Germany, and India and Burma, and carried over 700,000 casualties by the end of World War II. The World War II Photographic Collection includes photographic prints, negatives, lantern slides, and photographic albums collected by American Field Service staff at their New York headquarters during World War II.
The World War II Photographic Collection includes photographic prints, negatives, lantern slides, and photographic albums collected by American Field Service (AFS) staff at their New York headquarters during World War II. AFS commissioned staff photographers to take photographs of the events and activities of the organization in the various theaters of war. The photographers would then send the negatives or prints (if they were able to develop them in the field) back to AFS headquarters in New York. These images were used by AFS for documentation, public relations, and publicity purposes.
The photographic records of the American Field Service’s activities in World War II are useful in the study of American involvement prior to the United States’ entrance into the war in 1942, and the continued service alongside foreign forces until the cessation of wartime hostilities in 1945. The collection depicts the voluntary activities of AFS (including assisting injured soldiers), local landscapes and civilians (including images of Damascus and civilians in Italy), major events and battles in the war (including the Battle of Monte Cassino and the evacuation of the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp after its liberation), and groups and individuals involved in the war (including ambulance drivers and British military personnel who served alongside AFS.)
See the individual series descriptions for more information.
Alternate Extent Statement: 30 boxes
Access Restrictions: This collection is open for research. Cotton gloves are required for the handling of all photographic material. The lantern slides are very fragile, and some have become cracked or broken over time. As such, permission to view the lantern slides must be obtained from the AFS Archives in advance. The rolled photographs in Series 1 are brittle and consequently not available for research at this time.
Use Restrictions: Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish material from the collection must be submitted in writing to the Archives. In the event that this research becomes a source for publication, a credit line indicating the Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs is required. Researchers are responsible for determining any copyright questions.
Acquisition Method: This collection was compiled by the American Field Service staff during World War II, and was transferred to the Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs at an unknown date. Two albums put together by Carl Zeigler, as well as black and white slides produced by Carl Zeigler, were donated to AFS in 1971 by his wife, Elinor Zeigler.
Appraisal Information: The photographs and negatives in the Irving Penn Photographic Collection (RG2/003) were originally part of this collection, but were separated by the AFS Archives staff as a topical collection at an unknown date. Because Penn’s photographs were removed after the war by AFS Archives staff, some of his photographs may still remain unidentified in the official AFS World War II Photographic Collection (such as the “Ambulances and Plaques” folder in Subseries 1E, which has what seems to be Penn’s handwriting on the verso of the photographs.) No other material has been removed, separated, or deaccessioned.
Related Materials: There are many World War II photographs in the Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs that were donated by American Field Service (AFS) ambulance drivers or their heirs after the war. These can be identified by searching the “Photographs” subject term in the finding aid list. For photographs taken by Irving Penn, who served as an AFS staff photographer in Italy and India, see the Irving Penn Photographic Collection (RG2/003.) For photographic material related to the involvement of AFS in World War I, see the American Field Service World War I Photographic Collection (RG1/002.)
Preferred Citation: [Identification of item], [Date]; World War II Photographic Collection; Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs, New York, NY.
Processing Information: This collection was partially processed by AFS Archives staff at an unknown date, and again by Nicole Milano in 2011 and 2018. Preliminary finding aid written and encoded in EAD by Nicole Milano in June 2011 under the scope of the 2010-2011 Basic Processing grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, and updated in 2018.
19 boxes (8.62 cubic feet)
This series includes approximately 5,500 loose photographs (some of which are duplicates or contact prints), and eleven matted prints. The prints range in size from 1” x 1 ½” to 17” x 14,” and depict the activities of the American Field Service (AFS) during World War II (1939-1945), though there are also a few later reprints of the wartime photographs (dated 1956.) The bulk of the images were taken for publicity and identification purposes by various AFS photographers, who were commissioned by staff at the New York headquarters. Frequently-listed photographers (indicated on the verso of the photograph) include ambulance drivers George E. Holton, Richard S. Stockton, William K. DuVal, Lewis M. Purnell, and Loftus B. Cuddy, Jr. In addition to the AFS staff photographers, many of the images in the India and Burma folders appear to have been taken by the British military (P.R. Photo Section from GHQ in New Delhi, as indicated by a stamp on the verso), and many of the American Ambulance, Great Britain photographs were taken by Sport & General, a press agency in London (also indicated on the verso.) Other theaters include photographs stamped with the insignia of the British Imperial War Museum. The British photographs were likely sent to AFS headquarters in New York during the war, and have now been stored in separate subfolders when identified.
A large portion of the photographic prints depict AFS personnel (Subseries 1A), arranged by the ambulance driver’s last name. These images often include only one ambulance driver, but can also include more than one individual, though they were intentionally filed under one name. The other photographic prints cover all topics, including daily activities, ambulances, civilians, and local landscapes in all theaters of the war in which AFS participated. It appears that New York headquarters staff arranged the non-personnel photographs topically, often by theater of war or military force (i.e. the Middle East or British Liberation Army), and this arrangement has been maintained when possible. In addition to some captions, photographs were often labeled topically on the verso by AFS staff and placed into their respective folder (such as “Middle East- Wrecks” and “Middle East- Desert Life.”) The labels for all the photographic subseries were not always consistent, and a personnel photograph of William Oates may be labeled “Oates- Drivers,” “Oates-Personnel,” or the “O” in his last name would be underlined, indicating it should go in the “O” file.
Some of the photographic prints have a corresponding negative in Series 2. Typically, if there is a corresponding negative it will be housed in the same titled folder (i.e. a negative in the Series 2 folder “Italy- Evacuations” will have a positive print in the Series 1 folder “Italy-Evacuations.”) Because the material has not been arranged at an item level, this is not the case for all the photographs and negatives (i.e. some “Middle East- Ambulances” negatives may have prints in “Middle East-Maintenance” folder.) It appears there are no corresponding negatives for France (in either 1939-1940 or 1945), the Kenya colony, or from the American Ambulance, Great Britain photographs.
The photographs are arranged at the folder level into the following nine subseries: Subseries 1A: Personnel, Subseries 1B: France, Subseries 1C: Interim Activities, Subseries 1D: Middle East, Subseries 1E: Italy, Subseries 1F: India and Burma, Subseries 1G: British Liberation Army, Subseries 1H: United States of America, and Subseries 1I: All Theaters. Subseries 1C includes AFS activities with the American Ambulance, Great Britain, and with the British military in Kenya, before AFS become officially involved with the British 8th Army in the Middle East. The AFS activities with the Free French forces in Syria in 1941 were also considered an interim activity, but were stored by AFS staff with Subseries 1D, which also includes images from North Africa. The prints are housed in random order within the individual folders, and the folders are arranged alphabetically by folder title within each subseries. There are also several boxes of unsorted photographs, which have yet to be incorporated into the existing subseries. Any World War II envelopes that originally housed the photographs were kept with the prints, though they are now physically separated by a protective sleeve.
