A son of Lithuanian immigrants, Henry Francis Buinicky served in the armed forces in France and Germany during World War II. Priscilla (Langdon) Buinicky (d. 1987) attended Sargent College (then located in Cambridge, Mass.) in the 1940s and later worked as a nurse in Denver, Colorado, and in Virginia. She married Henry Francis Buinicky in August 1947. The collection consists of courtship correspondence between Buinicky and Langdon between 1940 and 1946.

Lawrence Joseph Centrello was a 1937 graduate of Harvard Law School and served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He married Maxine Regina Bracker Centrello, who lived in New York City and worked in a hospital. The collection consists of correspondence between Lawrence and Maxine Centrello before their marriage and during his war service.

Helen Marie (Tully) Crimp grew up in Milton, Mass.; her family was Irish Catholic. She attended Emerson College and Katharine Gibbs School before taking a job at an architectural firm in Boston, where she met her future husband, Frank W. Crimp (1899-1991). During World War II, Frank served in Europe and in 1945 was appointed military governor of Lichtenfels-Staffelstein in Bavaria, Germany. During the war, Helen worked for a publishing house in Boston, and she later joined Frank in Germany. This collection includes letters from Helen to Frank during the war, detailing life on the home front.

While stationed in Florida with the U.S. Army Nurse Corps, Harriet Adams met a lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force, Robert H. Earhart, and married him in 1944. He was sent to Europe and killed in March 1945. They had a son, Robert, Jr., nicknamed Butch, born in January 1945. This collection consists of Harriet A. Earhart's diary from 1944; letters from Robert to Harriet from 1944 and 1945; and letters from Harriet to Robert, returned unopened and marked "Deceased," from 1945. Also included are a few letters to Harriet from others.

Helen Beggs Eisold was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. In 1938 she married John Edward Eisold, a sales supervisor for the Spool Cotton Company. In 1943 John joined the Navy as part of the war effort. This collection includes correspondence between Helen and John while he was on active service.

Frances (White) Field received a B.A. from Vassar College (1936) and an M.N. from the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, Western Reserve University (1939). She was married to Albert Searle Field (1914-1962), a lieutenant serving abroad during World War II. She lived in Cleveland, Ohio, and New Hampshire during the war. This collection consists of transcriptions of portions of Field's letters to her husband describing her daily life (1942-1944), and three family photographs (1942-1945).

Educator, wife, and mother Florence Julie Belson met Donald Lillibridge during her junior year at the University of South Dakota. Don graduated a year early in 1942 in order to join the Marine Corps, and they married. Florence joined the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES). After arriving for duty in Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1943, Florence was discharged for being pregnant. While Don was serving in the Marine Corps, Florence returned to South Dakota to live with her parents and to teach in the English Department at the University of South Dakota. Don was a Second Lieutenant in November 1943 when the Marines landed on Tarawa Island, where he survived one of the bloodiest battles of the war. In June 1944, he returned to the United States after being wounded in Saipan; after he recovered, he was sent to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. This collection includes Florence’s correspondence with her husband Donald Lillibridge and family; diaries; notes, and other writings; photographs; and clippings.

While studying biology at Hunter College in New York City (B.A. 1936), Adele began dating Leonard Rosenfeld, a fellow Staten Islander who was studying philosophy and history at Harvard University. They wrote almost daily during their courtship and married in 1939. Two years following their wedding, Leonard enlisted in the U.S. Army. While apart, Adele and Leonard reignited their daily correspondence. This collection includes correspondence, notes in verse, poetry, photographs, and handmade cards encompassing the entire span of Adele’s relationship with Leonard, from the time they courted while he was a student at Harvard University until her death in 2003.

Medical anthropologist Hazel Marie Hitson Weidman joined the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) in 1943; she attended boot camp at the U.S. Naval Training School at Hunter College, Bronx, New York. After taking aptitude tests during boot camp, Weidman was sent to the Atlanta Naval Air Station to learn to instruct pilots in celestial navigation, which encompassed instrumental flight and radio navigation. During the war she served at several naval air bases including the New Orleans Naval Air Station and the Alameda and Livermore Naval Air Stations in California. Included in the collection are love letters received by Weidman during World War II, which offer glimpses into the lives of Navy and Army pilots during the war and the difficulties of maintaining long-distance romances during wartime.

Dorothy Anna (Wentling) Yokum graduated from Palmyra High School (1935) and Lebanon Valley College (1940), where she majored in science and met George E. Yokum, a fellow student. They were married in July 1941. George joined the Army, where he was eventually promoted to sergeant. Their first child, Barbara, was born while he was stationed abroad. This collection consists of correspondence between Dorothy and George Yokum, mostly while he was stationed in Europe with the army. Her letters detail her daily life, including her pregnancy and the ten months following the birth of her daughter, family relationships, and social activities. His letters describe his life in the military, concern for his family, and hopes for their future.

Mary Bingham was a newspaper executive and Barry Bingham was a newspaper editor and publisher in Louisville, KY. This collection consists mainly of correspondence between Mary and Barry Bingham during World War II, when he was serving as Lieutenant Commander, USNR, in Europe and East Asia. There is also correspondence with the Bingham children, friends, business associates, and other members of the family.

Although she is best known for her cooking shows, Julia Child and her husband Paul Child served overseas with the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. This collection contains an OSS report regarding a trip to China as well as correspondence between Paul and his twin brother Charles chronicling the lives of Paul and Julia in the OSS. Letters written during World War II discuss Paul's work in India (1944), Sri Lanka (1944), and China (1945).

Mary Janeway Conger attended private schools, including the Baldwin School; then matriculated at Douglass College, the women's college of Rutgers University. In 1944, she left college to join the Women's Army Corps (WACs). Conger served at Hamilton Field Air Base in California; she worked as an ambulance dispatcher, sending drivers to meet planes carrying soldiers wounded in the Pacific. After the war, she returned to college at the New School in New York, earning a BA in 1951. Conger later attended the University of Indiana, earning master's degrees in both Philosophy (1953) and Social Work (1955). Conger worked as a social worker in Indiana, Illinois, and New York before settling in Vermont, where her family had a summer home. This collection consists of letters Conger wrote to her mother and father while serving with the Women's Army Corps. The letters address her transfers within the base, furlough days, the difference between her life as a civilian and a WAC, and her opinions of the Army and of World War II. Several photographs of Conger, mostly in her WAC uniform, and professional and military documents are also included.

Charles Ashley and Mary Tyng Higgins were missionaries in China from 1939 to 1941 who were interned by the Japanese and repatriated in 1942. This collection includes correspondence with family and friends describing life in China (1913-1949).

Ada E. and John C. Worthington were married on August 19, 1926, and lived for a short time in Trinidad before settling in Truro, Massachusetts, in 1933. John served in the Ferrying Division of the Army Air Transport Command during World War II. The collection includes courtship and later correspondence of Ada and John Worthington, family correspondence, and John Worthington's military records.

The American Red Cross Clubmobile Service was a mobile service club staffed by American women who served coffee and doughnuts to American servicemen in Europe during World War II. The Clubmobiles traveled with the rear echelon of the Army Corps and received their orders from the Army. Clubmobiles served troops in England, France, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany. This collection contains correspondence, memoirs, insignia, clippings, and photographs documenting the experiences of women who served in the American Red Cross Clubmobile Service. This collection includes correspondence by various women who served in Clubmobiles.