Edward M. Ross Collection, ca. 1917-1919
| Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs
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Abstract
Administrative/Biographical History
Edward Maynard Ross was born on May 29, 1895, in Lebanon, NH. Ross was a student at Dartmouth College when he left for France in June 1917 to volunteer for the war effort. On June 13, Ross and other volunteers from Dartmouth reported to the American Field Service (AFS) headquarters in Paris, France, to volunteer as ambulance drivers serving alongside the French military. One week later they were joined by additional volunteers, forming Section Sanitaire [États-] Unis (SSU)66. After spending time at the training camp at May-en-Multien, the section worked at several postes de secours in France, including Rouge, Oulches, Flandres, Monaco, and Craonnelle, just under the Chemin des Dames
After the United States entered the war in 1917, the AFS units were slowly absorbed into the ranks of the U.S. Army, and AFS eventually ceased to exist as an independent wartime entity. In September 1917, Ross’s own AFS unit was absorbed by the U.S. Army, and subsequently became Section 623 of U.S. Army Ambulance Service (USAAS). Ross continued his service as an ambulance driver in this section of the USAAS through the end of the war.
Subjects (links to similar collections) Administrative Information
The Edward M. Ross Collection contains four diaries, four original photographs, eight photographic reproductions, and one letter relating to Ross’s service with the American Field Service (AFS) and the U.S. Army Ambulance Service (USAAS) during World War I. The bulk of the collection consists of Ross’s diaries, which contain daily entries from June 2, 1917 to July 23, 1919. These detail Ross’s experience as an ambulance driver in France with both organizations (including his service during the Battle of Belleau Wood), and life in France after the war until his departure for the United States in July, 1919. They also include logs of personal correspondence sent and received.
In addition to the diaries, the collection includes photographic material, including eight reproductions, four original photographs, and one letter relating to the original photographs. The reproductions measure 5” x 7”;four depict military officials (including French Commander Ferdinand Foch and U.S. General John J. Pershing) addressing AFS and USAAS volunteers, one depicts the Marne, and one is a photographic reproduction of a postcard. One of the original photographs, found with the diary dated June 2, 1917 to February 20, 1918, measures 2.75” x 4.5” depicts ruins of an unknown city and a line of ambulances. The three remaining original photographs measure 3” x 4”, and depict images of Soissons and Rozières-sur-Crise in December 1917. An undated letter was found with these three original photographs, which appear to have been sent to Ross after the war by fellow ambulance driver Paul S. Miner.