Soldiers and sentinels : Davidson's World War II veterans speak by Davidsoniana Files, or "D-Files," primarily contain secondary source information and are housed in Archives and Special Collections. This includes newspaper articles, scanned memos, brochures and pamphlets, memorial speeches, and booklets.
A selection of D-Files related to WWII:
Buildings - War Memorial
On December 7, 1941, Japanese forces attacked the U.S. Naval base at Pearl Harbor. This attack prompted the United States to officially enter World War II. Across the nation, men and women mobilized to serve their country. At Davidson, numerous faculty, staff, students, and alumni went into service.
Many died, including Vereen Bell '32, a novelist and naval officer and George Phifer Erwin '36 and Edward Jones Erwin, Jr. '43, who were brothers and also the sons of a Davidson professor. In total, at least over 100 Davidson alumni lost their lives.
In Spring 1946, a service flag was displayed on campus to commemorate students and alumni who served in WWII. The top number, 147, likely refers to the number of students who served and the bottom number, 2496, likely refers to the number of alumni who served. In the 1943 issue of Quips and Cranks, there is a listing of those who went off to serve. The image on the left is an original image of the flag, while the image on the right is from the 1946 Quips and Cranks. In this post-war issue, the names and photographs of those who died while in service are also listed.
On our blog, Around the D, and in our Online Davidson Encyclopedia, you can find entries related to varying aspects of campus life and history. Listed below are select articles related to World War II and Davidson.
Archival materials are the institutional records of Davidson College from its establishment in 1837 to the present day. Listed below is a relevant collection related to World War II reminiscences, with a brief description of the collection's contents.
Listed below are relevant manuscript collections related to World War II. Collections are organized by manuscript number, along with a brief description of the collection's contents, and are hyperlinked to the collection's digital finding aid.
Davidson College Library Research Guides are licensed under
CC BY-SA 4.0.
Mailing Address: Davidson College - E.H. Little Library, 209 Ridge Road, Box 5000, Davidson, NC 28035