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Mike Donovan research on Newtown during wartime and Newtown veterans

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Held at: Newtown Historic Association [Contact Us]Centre Avenue and Court Street, Newtown, Pennsylvania

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Newtown Historic Association. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.

Overview and metadata sections

Michael J. Donovan is a resident of Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and U.S. Coast Guard veteran who for the past 50 or so years, has researched Newtown's history during times of war, particularly Newtown veterans. His meticulous research has resulted in several servicemen receiving purple heart awards. Mike has ensured that veterans were honored each year, that records of veterans of all wars have been maintained, and gathered information on veterans groups such as Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Grand Army of the Republic.

This collection consists of primarily secondary-source materials, such as narrative histories (many written by Donovan), research notes, newspaper clippings, and copies of original documents and photographs with a fair amount of primary-source documents that Donovan acquired from the families of veterans, such as photographs and letters. Two highlights of this collection are photographs and short biographies of all the individuals from Newtown who served in World War I and World War II and a collection of letters to John Janney from Newtown servicemen during World War II, which were published in the local newspaper.

The collection includes materials relating to the Newtown Skirmish, Revolutionary War, military uniforms, Civil War, Grand Army of the Republic, copperheads, World War I, World War II, Vietnam War, Korean War, Red Cross, and American Legion.

Gift of Michael Donovan.

Summary descriptive information on this collection was compiled in 2012-2014 as part of a project conducted by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania to make better known and more accessible the largely hidden collections of small, primarily volunteer run repositories in the Philadelphia area. The Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories (HCI-PSAR) was funded by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

This is a preliminary finding aid. No physical processing, rehousing, reorganizing, or folder listing was accomplished during the HCI-PSAR project.

Detailed, computerized inventories of all of the items in this collection are available on site at the repository where this collection is held; please contact Newtown Historic Association directly for more information.

Publisher
Newtown Historic Association
Finding Aid Author
Finding aid prepared by staff of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories using data provided by Newtown Historic Association
Sponsor
This preliminary finding aid was created as part of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories. The HCI-PSAR project was made possible by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Access Restrictions

Contact Newtown Historic Association for information about accessing this collection.

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