John C. Hanna Collection, 1916-1985
| Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs
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Abstract
Administrative/Biographical History
John Clifford Hanna, often referred to as “Cliff,” served as an ambulance driver from 1916 to 1917 with Section Sanitaire [Etats-] Unis (SSU) 1 of the American Field Service (AFS), a volunteer ambulance service serving with the French Army in France during World War II. AFS ceased to be an independent organization and was absorbed by the United States Army after the U.S. entered the war in 1917, and Hanna subsequently served in the British Royal Air Force program in Canada and was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant. During World War II he became an AFS representative for recruitment in Detroit, Michigan, and then served in the United States Army Air Corps as a Combat Intelligence Officer for a B-25 Strafer-Bomber Group in the southwest Pacific Ocean.
Following the Second World War, Hanna became involved with the motion picture business and produced several war pictures while working with an Australian motion picture studio. He founded Video Film, Inc. in 1947, and produced several television films and commercials. He also served on the Board of Managers for the Detroit section of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. He received commendations as a producer and was honored in November 1978 with the Pioneer Award of the Detroit Producers Association. Hanna also stayed active with AFS, including helping to spread the word about the student exchange programs that were established after the Second World War.
Hanna met his wife, Helen, while serving with the British Royal Air Force in Canada during the First World War. John Clifford Hanna passed away on November 28, 1988.
Subjects (links to similar collections) Administrative Information
The John C. Hanna Collection contains correspondence, photographic albums, photographic prints and negatives, and other material documenting his involvement with the American Field Service (AFS) throughout his life. The large amount of correspondence documents his service in World War I, his time as an American Field Service representative for recruitment during World War II, and his participation with the AFS Association and ambulance driver reunions before and after World War II. Key figures represented in his correspondence are Director General Stephen Galatti, and World War II ambulance driver George Rock. The collection also includes AFS bulletins and newsletters , publications (in French, including La Guerre en Août), a luggage tag and passenger list from 1919 for the “Espagne” ship (which included A. Piatt Andrew as a passenger), and a World War I-era scrapbook containing correspondence, newsletters, and other documents (dated August 21, 1916 to November 25, 1916.)
The collection also contains approximately 270 loose negatives and photographic prints, and two photographic albums. Most of the loose material is labeled at item level, though not all, and depicts Hanna’s involvement with SSU 1. The bulk of the loose material is negatives, many of which have a corresponding positive print in one of the photographic albums. The first, more modern album (which may contain photographic reproductions), includes twenty seven 3 ½” x 5” photographs from 1916 to 1917, which depict fellow AFS ambulance drivers, local civilians, and ambulances. The second album contains around 278 original photographs (most at 1 ¾” x 2 ½”) in a bound album on soft black paper, and is dated November 1916 to September 1917. Many of the photographs in the second album were captioned by Hanna, and contain scenes from AFS and SSU 1 history, including photographs of A. P. Andrew receiving the Cross of the Legion of Honor, landscape photographs of Esnes and Paris, and ambulances in Argonne. All photographs in the bound albums are inventoried.
Finally, the collection includes a wooden panel piece from his AFS ambulance number 424, which carried the inscription “Yale Classes of 1916 and 1916S”, and was donated by members of Classes 1916 and 1916S of Yale University.