By Andrea Kutsenkow
Title: William Boardman Kinter Collection, 1943-2015
Predominant Dates:1945
ID: RG2/091
Creator: Kinter, William B. (William Boardman) (1926-1978)
Extent: 0.3 Cubic Feet. More info below.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged by creator into two series: Series 1: William B. Kinter Papers, circa 1943-1979 and Series 2: Marion A. Kinter Posters, 2014-2015.
Please see the individual series descriptions for additional information.
Date Acquired: 00/00/2015
Languages: English, Japanese, Dutch;Flemish
William Boardman Kinter was a volunteer ambulance driver with the American Field Service in Burma between January and August 1945. The William Boardman Kinter Collection primarily consists of his wartime photographic material, including a scrapbook containing black and white photographs and memorabilia and a series of color Kodachrome slides. The collection also includes posters created by his daughter, Marion, more than sixty years after the war, using William’s photographic material and details regarding his service.
The William Boardman Kinter Collection primarily consists of his wartime photographic material, including a scrapbook containing black and white photographs and memorabilia, and a series of color Kodachrome slides produced between January and August 1945 when he serviced with unit IB 43 of the American Field Service in central Burma. The collection also includes posters created by his daughter, Marion, more than sixty years after the war, using his photographic material and details regarding his service.
See the individual Series descriptions for more information.
Alternate Extent Statement: 1 flat box
Access Restrictions: This collection is open for research. Digital photographs, scrapbooks pages, slides, and the letter can be accessed through the online finding aid. Permission to access original material is required by the Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs in advance. Cotton gloves are required for the handling of all photographic material.
Use Restrictions: Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish or reproduce material from the collection must be submitted in writing to the AFS Archives. In the event that this research becomes a source for publication, a credit line indicating the Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs as the source and credit line for the photographer are required.
Acquisition Method: The William Boardman Kinter Collection was donated by William B. Kinter’s daughter, Marion Kinter to the Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs in 2015.
Appraisal Information: Any material related to the cataloging of the collection by Marion Kinter was moved to an administrative file. No historic or original items from the collection were deaccessioned, separated, or removed from the collection.
Related Materials: For more information on the American Field Service’s activities during World War II, view RG2/001, the American Field Service World War II Records. For more information about the American Field Service’s activities in Burma during World War II, view RG2/019 the Norman C. Kunkel Collection.
Preferred Citation: [Identification of item], [Date]; William Boardman Kinter Collection; Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs, New York, NY.
Processing Information: This collection was cataloged by Marion Kinter prior to its donation to AFS in 2015. Archival processing was completed by Andrea Kutsenkow in April 2016. The finding aid was also written and encoded in EAD by Andrea Kutsenkow in April 2016.
The William Boardman Kinter Collection primarily consists of his wartime photographic material, including a scrapbook, a series of color Kodachrome slides, a letter, and portraits. The bulk of this series consists of a scrapbook containing maps of Burma, his Geneva card, a pay book, Japanese postcards, insignia and ribbons, and local currency. Most significantly, the scrapbook includes approximately 230 black and white prints (most around 3.25” x 2.25”), which William B. Kinter assembled chronologically into an annotated scrapbook. The annotations were written by Kinter in the margins or on the verso of the images, and include commentary on people and places in the images. Only on occasion did Kinter reference fighting that occurred across regions of Burma in his scrapbook commentary, including during the months of April, May and September 1945.
The majority of the scrapbook photographs were taken in Burma (including Loikaw, Taunggyi, Meiktila, Chauk, Heho, Toungoo, and Rangoon), although a few relate to his travels in India, Tel Aviv, Bethlehem, and Wales on the way to and from his service in Burma. The images depict the daily routines of his fellow AFS volunteers, members of the British military, Burmese soldiers, and Burmese natives, including the Naga Hill People and the Padaung Tribe. Kinter showed his deep appreciation of the Burmese culture by photographing their religious centers (including the temples of Pagan), as well native people tending to their livestock, working in bazaars, and attending school. In addition to capturing the diverse landscape of Burma, Kinter also photographed the activities of nearly twenty-five AFS volunteers and military colleagues as they drove across difficult terrain, repaired and washed their vehicles, crossed rivers, set up camp, unloaded supplies, hunted, carried stretchers, worked in dressing stations, and dug trenches.
While there are no images of the actual fighting in Burma, Kinter did note details in the scrapbook about the fighting that had occurred across the region. In March 1945, Allied troops at Meiktila resisted frequent and heavy Japanese attacks until Taungtha was retaken. Around the same time, the 2nd British and 20th Indian Divisions were busy clearing the area south and southwest of Mandalay. With control of the railroad, the Fourteenth Army completed the capture of the Mandalay plain, as well as remnants of other Japanese forces in central Burma. Kinter recorded the aftermath of this fighting during an April trip from Meiktila to Pagan and when evacuating nearly eighty patients along the Toungoo strip.
Although Kinter developed the scrapbook photographs in the back of his ambulance, not all photographs were taken by him; some were taken by other AFS volunteers or were given to Kinter by the Indian photographer named Moochland. A few larger prints toward the back of the scrapbook were produced from negatives Kinter discovered behind a photography shop in Taunggyi in September 1945. These prints were used by Field Security workers who were trying to identify Japanese collaborators.
In addition to the scrapbook, the series contains forty-four rare 35mm Kodachrome color slides that depict Kinter’s interest in the Padaung tribe, as well as his appreciation of the architecture of Burma, Bethlehem, and Wales. Many slides also depict Kinter’s trip along the “Kalaw Staircase,” the most northerly road in Burma that runs from Thazi to Kalaw.
Most pages and individual items in the scrapbook and all color slides were digitized and cataloged by Kinter’s daughter, Marion, and are available online.In some cases (where annotations were present), the verso of the black and white prints were also scanned and are available online. Any annotations by William Kinter are provided verbatim with the digital items, as are cataloging notes (when available) by Marion Kinter, who used the AFS World War II roster and George Rock’s The History of the American Field Service, 1920-1955 for context. Due to William Boardman Kinter’s reliance on nicknames and phonetic spellings, clarifications of spelling or words are given in brackets by the AFS Archives staff.
The series also includes Kinter’s slide notes, as well as a letter dated April 17, 1945, which was written by William Kinter to his aunt and uncle. The letter has been digitized, and is available online. Finally, there are five portraits of William Kinter taken between 1944 and 1970, which are only available in digital format. There are no original portraits in this collection.
The series is arranged by material type into folder, with the color slides in three folders according to original slide sets based on season: Spring and Summer 1945, Summer 1945, and Fall 1945.
