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World War II maps and radio broadcasts collection

Notifications

Held at: University of Delaware Library Special Collections [Contact Us]181 South College Avenue, Newark, DE 19717-5267

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the University of Delaware Library Special Collections. 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

Emily C. Stump, a Wilmington, Delaware, area resident was employed by the Hercules Powder Company during World War II. Like the Du Pont and Atlas companies, Hercules operated government-owned munitions plants during the War and also pursued development of other war-related products.

As an executive secretary at Hercules, Mrs. Stump compiled for the company briefing notebooks of newspaper clippings which tracked military progress of Allied and Axis powers throughout World War II. She also collected transcripts of daily radio news broadcasts from stations WOR and WDEL.

Before the war, Emily married E. Chrles Stump, III, who served as a lieutenant in the Personal Affairs Office of the Army Air Forces during World War II.

Polk's Wilmington (New Castle County, Del.) City Directory. Boston: R.L. Polk and Co., Inc., 1944. V 32, pp.370, 768.Additional biographical information derived from the collection

Spanning the dates 1940-1945, this collection of World War II maps and radio broadcasts primarily consists of material collected by Emily C. Stump, a Wilmington, Delaware, area resident employed by the Hercules Powder Company. Like the Du Pont and Atlas companies, Hercules operated government-owned munitions plants during the War and also pursued development of other war-related products.

The collection is organized in three series: I. Maps and News Clippings, II. Radio Broadcasts, and III. Personal Affairs Office Manuals.

The maps and newspaper clippings are arranged chronologically, providing almost daily documentation of war operations in the European and Pacific theaters, from December 1941 to September 1945. The maps were originally kept in five dated notebooks, the first of which (December 1941 to March 1943) includes a detailed title index of the 486 maps contained therein. None of the other notebooks contains an index, although the majority of maps are clearly captioned. Interfiled with the newspaper clippings are transcribed speeches presented by Churchill, Roosevelt, and Hitler; as well as photographic clippings of tanks, aircraft, battleships, and other war materiel. From mastheads partially visible on the verso of many of the clippings, it appears that they came from the New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Philadelphia Recorder. Emily Stump maintained the notebooks until September of 1944, when the responsibility fell to Eloise Adams.

The radio news broadcasts appear in reverse chronological order, reflecting Emily Stump's original organization. The carbon typescripts and mimeographs are dated and headed with station name and time of broadcast: either WOR 11:00 a.m. or WDEL 2:45 p.m. The WOR broadcasts also report stock market activity for the day (usually including Hercules).

The third series comprises Personal Affairs Office manuals and related materials, 1944-1945, which belonged to Lieutenant E. Charlies Stump, III, Emily C. Stump's husband. Stump appears to have attended training at the AAF Personal Affairs School at 141 Broadway, New York City, and some of the manuals bear his underlines and annotations. The Personal Affairs Office of the Army Air Forces notified families of casualties and provided information about benefits, health and life insurance, and restitution to veterans, widows, and families of deceased soldiers. Other Office areas of responsibility included the transportation corps, the female volunteer corps, prisoners of war, and the reintegration of soldiers into civilian life following military service.

The manuals, sample forms, memoranda and circulars, and pamphlets in this series represent administrative procedures for services provided by the Personal Affairs Office. As a whole, the series documents the Army Air Forces' efforts "to render every assistance possible to the next of kin of AAF military personnel listed as casualties." There are sample sympathy letters for notification of death, sample telegrams for reporting abandoned searches for missing servicemen, flow charts of services for prisoners of war, a map of camps and hospitals in Germany with POWs, and illustrations of Red Cross food parcels for POWs.

Other materials in the series relate to transportation of individuals, flow charts and guidelines for utilization of AAF women volunteers in the Personal Affairs Office, separation policies for military personnel, and benefits and insurance for veterans and their dependents. One brochure is titled "The Gateway to Opportunity for Veterans of World War No. 2" with "Questions and Answers for G.I. Joe and G.I. Jane," and another pamphlet is "Information for Soldiers Going Back to Civilian Life."

Nearly all of the original materials in this collection have been retained, but preservation copies have been made for all of the newspaper clippings in Series I.

Boxes 1-2: Shelved in SPEC MSS record center carton

Gift of the Stump family, 1994

Processed by Jennifer Paul, December 1995. Additional encoding by John Caldwell, February 2020.

Publisher
University of Delaware Library Special Collections
Finding Aid Author
University of Delaware Library, Special Collections
Finding Aid Date
2020 February 21
Access Restrictions

The collection is open for research.

Use Restrictions

Use of materials from this collection beyond the exceptions provided for in the Fair Use and Educational Use clauses of the U.S. Copyright Law may violate federal law. Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. Please contact Special Collections Department, University of Delaware Library, https://library.udel.edu/static/purl.php?askspec.

Collection Inventory

Scope and Contents

Note: Preservation copies of all maps and newspaper clippings are available for this series and should be used in place of the originals.

Index.
Box 1 Folder F1
Notebook 1 [1], 1941 December - 1942 January.
Box 1 Folder F2
Notebook 1 [2], 1941 December - 1942 January.
Box 1 Folder F3
Notebook 1, 1942 February - March.
Box 1 Folder F4
Notebook 1, 1942 April - May.
Box 1 Folder F5
Notebook 1, 1942 July.
Box 1 Folder F6
Notebook 1, 1942 August - September.
Box 1 Folder F7
Notebook 1, 1942 October - December.
Box 1 Folder F8
Notebook 1, 1943 January - February.
Box 1 Folder F9
Notebook 1, 1943 March.
Box 1 Folder F10
Notebook 1 preservation copies [1], 1941 December - 1942 January.
Box 1 Folder F1a
Notebook 1 preservation copies [2], 1941 December - 1942 January.
Box 1 Folder F1b
Notebook 1 preservation copies, 1942 February - March.
Box 1 Folder f1c
Notebook 1 preservation copies, 1942 April - May.
Box 1 Folder F1d
Notebook 1 preservation copies, 1942 July.
Box 1 Folder F1e
Notebook 1 preservation copies, 1942 August - September.
Box 1 Folder F1f
Notebook 1 preservation copies, 1942 October - December.
Box 1 Folder F1g
Notebook 1 preservation copies, 1943 January - February.
Box 1 Folder F1h
Notebook 1 preservation copies, 1943 March.
Box 1 Folder F1i
Notebook 2, 1943 April - December.
Box 1 Folder F11
Notebook 2 preservation copies [1].
Box 1 Folder F2a
Notebook 2 preservation copies [2].
Box 1 Folder F2b
Notebook 2 preservation copies [3].
Box 1 Folder F2c
Notbook 3, 1944 January - September.
Box 1 Folder F12
Notebook 3 preservation copies [1].
Box 1 Folder F3a
Notebook 3 preservation copies [2].
Box 1 Folder F3b
Notebook 3 preservation copies [3].
Box 1 Folder F3c
Notebook 3 preservation copies [4].
Box 1 Folder F3d
Notebook 4, 1944 September 28 - 1945 March 3.
Box 1 Folder F13
Notebook 4 preservation copies [1].
Box 2 Folder F4a
Notebook 4 preservation copies [2].
Box 2 Folder F4b
Notebook 4 preservation copies [3].
Box 2 Folder F4c
Notebook 4 preservation copies [4].
Box 2 Folder F4d
Notebook 5, 1945 March 6 - September 5.
Box 2 Folder F14
Notebook 5 preservation copies [1].
Box 2 Folder F5a
Notebook 5 preservation copies [2].
Box 2 Folder F5b
Notebook 5 preservation copies [3].
Box 2 Folder F5c

Scope and Contents

Arranged in reverse chronological order, as per Emily Stump's original files.

1945 June 1 - September 12.
Box 2 Folder F15
1945 January 2 - May 31.
Box 2 Folder F16
1944 September 1- December 29.
Box 2 Folder F17
1944 June 5 - August 31.
Box 2 Folder F18
1943 January 4 - November 1.
Box 2 Folder F19
1942 January 2 - December 18.
Box 2 Folder F20

PAO Casuality Handbook, 1945 April.
Box 2 Folder F21
Scope and Contents

With additional policy file pages.

Prisoner of War Information Manual, 1945 February.
Box 2 Folder F22
Women volunteers, 1944-1945.
Box 2 Folder F23
Separation of military personnel, 1945.
Box 2 Folder F24
Scope and Contents

Readjustment allowances, VA business loans, reemployment rights, training programs, the G.I. Bill of Rights, Transportation Corps, War Bonds, Discharges, etc.

Miscellaenous [1].
Box 2 Folder F25
Miscellaneous [2].
Box 2 Folder F26
National Service Life Insurance [1], 1944-1945.
Box 2 Folder F27
National Service Life Insurance [2], 1944-1945.
Box 2 Folder F28
National Service Life Insurance [3], 1944-1945.
Box 2 Folder F29
National Service Life Insurance [4], 1944-1945.
Box 2 Folder F30
National Service Life Insurance [5], 1944-1945.
Box 2 Folder F31

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