Call Number:

Ms. Coll. 1518

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts

Extent:

1.5 linear feet (1 box)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Colonel Thomas W.E. Christmas collection of Korean War military photographs, 1949-1952, Ms. Coll. 1518 , Kislak Ceenter for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania.

Date:

1949-1952 (inclusive)

Form:

Photographs

Abstract:

Colonel Thomas William Ellsworth Christmas was a surgeon in the Army Medical Corps specializing in eye, ear, nose and throats. His collection of photographs comprises images of military hospital installations taken near Pusan during the Korean War. Photographs show hospital facilities, personnel, other army facilities, images of Prison of War Compound #93, nurses, surgeons, Korean Horticultural and the Research Institute in Tongnae.

Thomas William Ellsworth Christmas was born on August 13, 1898 in Michigan. He served as a doctor in the Army Medical Corps during three wars, and supervised construction of Dibble Hospital, Menlo Park, California, where he later served as Executive Officer until 1945. Christmas was a military surgeon who specialized in eye, ear, nose and throat. He studied medicine at Walter Reed, in the Army Medical Field Service School. From 1930-1932 Christmas served at Fort Clayton, Panama, and from 1932-1937 he was assigned to general medicine and surgery at Letterman. He spent the next four years in the EENT section at the station hospital in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, after which he served as District Medical Director of the Caribbean Defense Command in Trinidad, British West Indies, from May 1941-1943.

Christmas was stationed in Pusan during the Korean War as the surgeon for the 2nd Logistical Command. In 1952 he became the new commander of the 8167th Army Hospital in Tokyo. He was awarded the Swedish Red Cross Medal of Merit for meritorious service to the Swedish Red Cross Hospital in Korea between April 13, 1951, and February 5, 1952.

The Colonel Thomas W.E. Christmas collection of Korean War military photographs comprises 189 photographs mounted on twenty-two card stock leaves with ink annotations; a photographic record of one man's time in Korea during the war. A combination of official Army and vernacular, this compilation of images depicts scenes of the Korean War during the service of Colonel Thomas William Ellsworth Christmas. Taken mostly in Pusan, photographs show hospital facilities inside and out, personnel (including Korean doctors and nurses), cooking staff, other army facilities, Prisoner of War Compound #93, patients, surgeons, POW hospital in Pusan, nuns, children, scenes in Pusan, and the Korean Horticultural and Research Institute in Tongnae. Images are captioned throughout in ink or typed captions on the backs of images.