Collections

This collection contains a black and white photograph of Black army musicians of the 165 Depot Brigade, Camp Travis, Texas. A typed caption pasted on the back of the photo reads, "#263 Negro Band, Frist [sic] Group, 165 Depot Brigade, Camp Travis, Texas. Taken just outside Army Y.M.C.A. Building No. 1, devoted exclusively to negro troops. (Negro Secretaries in charge.)" Publicity Bureau National War Work Council, Y.M.C.A. Northeastern Dept. 352 Little Bldg. Boston, Mass is stamped in ink on the back. The picture depicts twenty-one men seated and two standing in uniform outside the Y.M.C.A building. The men hold their instruments, which include trumpets, French horns, saxophones, clarinets, trombones, tuba, and drums. The role of Depot Brigades was to receive and organize recruits, provide them with uniforms, equipment, and initial military training, and then send them to France to fight on the front lines. The depot brigades also received soldiers returning home at the war's end and completed their outprocessing and discharges.

This collection contains images of both African and African American individuals. The subjects photographed include military personnel, men, women, and children. Some individuals were photographed inside of a photographer's studio. The images vary in size and format and range in date from circa 1850s-1945. Each item has a description at the file level.

Photograph scrapbook created by Captain Clark McRay Valentine while serving as a medical officer in the 92nd Infantry Division during World War II. He was stationed in both Italy and Germany in the tail end of the war and post-war period. There are photographs from his time in Italy, specifically Naples, and include fellow African American troops. At some point, Valentine's wife Frances and son Clark, Jr. visited him in Italy and are in some photographs. The post-war Germany photographs feature the ruins and militarized zones of Berlin. A set of photos are identified by Valentine as being captured from German POWs and depict Nazi ceremonies, Hitler Youth, military operations, Russia, equipment and leading German military figures like General Guderian. Researchers are advised that there is one photograph of a mass hanging (men and a woman) and photographs taken inside concentration camps and depict deceased individuals and a crematorium. Under one such photograph, Valentine captioned, "Can we ever trust the Germans?" Additionally, there are photographs of Hitler's Eagle's Nest and the surrounding town of Bechtesgaden and the nearby salt mines.

This collection contains one Revolutionary War pay voucher to Cuff Liberty, an African American soldier from Middletown, Connecticut, who was one of approximately 300 enslaved or freemen from Connecticut who fought for the Continental Army. The government-issued vouchers promised full payment by a certain date and paid interest until the full amount was collected. The voucher, measuring 8" X 4", is printed on laid paper with a black decorative border, numbered in ink "3958" for £13,6,7 1/2." Cuff Liberty's name is written in ink, and a circular cancellation hole is beneath it. It is signed by Treasurer John Lawrence, as "J. Lawrence." Written on the back, in ink, are notations of the interest payments from June 1783 through 1789. The principal was probably paid soon after 1789, evidenced by the interest payments and the circular punch-out cancellation, that the debt was cleared and the voucher was no longer valid for payment. According to research sponsored by the Daughters of the American Revolution, Cuff Liberty had been enslaved by William Ward of Middletown and manumitted in 1776 after purchasing his freedom. He enlisted in 1778 and served in the 6th, the 4th, and 2nd Regiments of the Connecticut Continental Line. This pattern, particularly the placement in Captain Humphrey's segregated company of the 4th, was common among African Americans serving on the Continental Line. Discharged in 1783, he later applied for and received bounty land. He is listed by William Cooper Nell in "Coloured Patriots of the American Revolution (1855); Thomas Moebs "Black soldiers, Black sailors, Black ink," and Bryna O'Sullivan, "Who was Private Cuff Liberty?" (Charter Oak Genealogy, July 2, 2021)

This collection contains the photograph album of Ernest Butler, a United States Army soldier who served in Germany during the Second World War. Butler was among the one million African American men and women who served during the war.

This collection contains two photo albums of Herbert R. Davis of Richmond, Virginia that document Black pre-World War II life in Richmond; Davis's service in the South Pacific (Guam, Guadalco, and Peleliu) as a Black Marine; and Davis's family life upon his return from combat during the early 1930's to the late 1940's.

This material contains references to offensive and harmful language and crimes involving racism. The purpose of this note is to give users the opportunity to decide whether they need or want to view these materials, or at least, to mentally or emotionally prepare themselves to view the materials.

This collection contains a photo album of an unidentified African American U.S. Army soldier in Nürnberg during the post-WWII Allied occupation of West Germany. The album includes photographs of fellow squadron members stationed at Merrell Barracks.