Luman H. Tenney Collection, 1917-1954
| Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs
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Abstract
Administrative/Biographical History
Dr. Luman H. Tenney served as an American Field Service (AFS) ambulance driver with Section Sanitaire [Etats-] Unis (SSU) 12 and SSU 3 from January to October 1917. During that time, he served with French divisions at the front in France, Greece, and Serbia. He was released from AFS and joined the United States Army as a Lieutenant in the Heavy Artillery when the AFS section to which he was assigned was dissolved upon the entry of the United States into the war.
After the first World War, Tenney graduated from Oberlin College in 1920, from the Western Reserve Medical School in 1929, and completed his psychiatric training at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and Bellevue Hospital in New York City in 1939. Tenney served in the military in World War II and retired as a captain in the U.S. Navy. Tenney worked in various medical-related capacities after World War II, including serving as director of the Mental Hygiene Clinic for the state of New Jersey, teaching at Princeton University, and serving as director of the Buncombe County and Western North Carolina Mental Health Clinic. He was also a member of various professional associations, including the American Psychiatric Association.
Tenney married and had two sons, Dr. James B. Tenney and Dr. Richard L. Tenney. The Tenney family remained active in AFS after Dr. Luman H. Tenney’s service as an ambulance driver with the organization during the first World War. Dr. James B. Tenney and his wife Shirley H. Tenney were adult chapter co-presidents of the AFS student exchange program (which was established in 1946) in the 1980s. The Tenney family also hosted two AFS students (from Turkey and Indonesia), and two grandchildren of Dr. Luman H. Tenney traveled internationally on AFS programs (Barbara Tenney to the Dominican Republic and Carol Tenney to Italy).
Dr. Luman H. Tenney died on March 17, 1970 in Henderson County, North Carolina, at age 72.
Subjects (links to similar collections) Administrative Information
The Luman H. Tenney Collection includes his wartime diary, booklets, American Hospital of Paris member card, and other papers related to his service and involvement with the American Field Service during World War I. The bulk of the collection consists of items from World War I, including his diary, which documents his service from February through June 1917 (although it does not include January or July through October.) The diary contains a log of his activities while serving with SSU 12 near Souilly and Bar-le-Duc, France, including injuries he observed, meals he ate, camp activities, book he read, and includes few personal opinions or emotions. The diary also contains a list of letters received, addresses, extracts from official reports, and clippings. Inserted in the pages of the diary were a small ticket and a newspaper clipping with a poem. The ticket is found between pages 26 and 27, the poem is found between pages 35 and 36.
In addition to the papers collected during his time in service, the collection also includes two booklets from the AFS Association (formed after World War I and before World War II) and a letter written in 1954 by Stephen Galatti, Director General of the American Field Service in World War II and of the student exchange programs created in 1946, which affirms Tenney’s service with the American Field Service during World War I.