World War II maps and radio broadcasts 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.