American Field Service World War II Photographic Collection, 1939-1956
| Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs
More Extent Information
Arrangement
This collection is partially processed by genre into the following four series: Prints, Negatives, Lantern Slides, and Albums.
See the individual series descriptions for more information.
Abstract
Administrative/Biographical History
The American Field Service (AFS) was founded shortly after the outbreak of World War I, when Americans living in Paris volunteered as ambulance drivers at the American Hospital of Paris. Under the leadership of A. Piatt Andrew, Inspector General, AFS participated in every major French battle and carried more than 500, 000 wounded. By the end of World War I, 2,500 men had served as ambulance or camion drivers in the American Field Service with the French Armies.
Stephen Galatti, who had been Andrew’s assistant during World War I, became Director General of the organization in 1936. Under his leadership, the AFS ambulance service was reactivated in 1939 at the start of the Second World War. Stephen Galatti, his staff at the New York headquarters, and regional representatives around the country (including William DeFord Bigelow in Boston) actively raised funds and recruited ambulance drivers to assist foreign forces overseas. American volunteers first drove ambulances in France with the French Army in 1940, and as the war progressed they were in North Africa, the Middle East, Italy, Germany, and India and Burma with the British military, Free French forces (Forces Françaises Combattants), and First French Army. The 2,196 ambulance drivers served with the armies of many nations, alongside French, British, Polish, Australian, New Zealand, Indian and South African troops and carried over 700,000 casualties by the end of the war.
Subjects (links to similar collections)American Field Service (American Ambulance Field Service)
Bergen-Belsen (Concentration camp)
Cuddy, Loftus B., Jr. (Loftus Brookman), b. 1921
Du Val, William K. (William Kirkland), b. 1925
Holton, George E. (George Edward), 1921-1979
Purnell, Lewis M. (Lewis Morgan), 1921-
Stockton, Richard S. (Richard Sterling), 1897-1943
World War, 1939-1945
Zeigler, Carl F. (Carl Frederick), 1906-1971
Forms of Material (links to similar genres) Administrative Information
The World War II Photographic Collection includes photographic prints, negatives, lantern slides, and photographic albums collected by American Field Service (AFS) staff at their New York headquarters during World War II. AFS commissioned staff photographers to take photographs of the events and activities of the organization in the various theaters of war. The photographers would then send the negatives or prints (if they were able to develop them in the field) back to AFS headquarters in New York. These images were used by AFS for documentation, public relations, and publicity purposes.
The photographic records of the American Field Service’s activities in World War II are useful in the study of American involvement prior to the United States’ entrance into the war in 1942, and the continued service alongside foreign forces until the cessation of wartime hostilities in 1945. The collection depicts the voluntary activities of AFS (including assisting injured soldiers), local landscapes and civilians (including images of Damascus and civilians in Italy), major events and battles in the war (including the Battle of Monte Cassino and the evacuation of the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp after its liberation), and groups and individuals involved in the war (including ambulance drivers and British military personnel who served alongside AFS.)
See the individual series descriptions for more information.