Myrtle Otto Hanke Collection
Content Description
The collection includes an oral history transcript, 11 February 2000; various correspondence, 1941-1945; various newspaper clippings, 1942-1946; photographs and 16 artist color renderings of Coolangatta, Queensland/Tweed Heads, New South Wales, Australia.
Dates
- circa 1941-2000
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright is retained by the creators of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information. Please see our Sensitive Materials Statement.
Biographical / Historical
Myrtle Otto Hanke (1922-2014) of Brookline, Massachusetts, served at the Naval Communications Annex in Washington, D.C., in the U.S. Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) from October 1942 to 1947.
Myrtle Otto Hanke was born in Newton, Massachusetts, on 7 May 1922. She grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts, and graduated from Brookline High School in 1939. Hanke returned to school for a postgraduate course and then worked for the National Fire Protection Association.
Hanke joined the United States Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) in October 1942. In December she went to basic training at Iowa State Teachers' College in Cedar Falls, and then in February 1943 she went to a month of cryptographic training in Washington, D.C. Hanke then worked at the Naval Communications Annex in D.C. for the remainder of the war, transferring to a larger crypotographic unit after six months in Washington. She left the WAVES as a chief petty officer in 1947.
After the war, Hanke moved to Chicago, Illinois, and attended Columbia College, where she met her husband. She had children and worked for a number of companies, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, IBM, and Honeywell. Her husband was in the navy during World War II and the Korean War.
Extent
0.21 Linear Feet (3 folders, archival box)
Language of Materials
English
Metadata Rights Declarations
- License: This record is made available under an Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Creative Commons license.
Condition Description
The condition is good.
Offensive Language Statement
The UNC Greensboro University Libraries collects, preserves, and makes accessible unique and historical materials for learning and research. The nature of historical materials is such that some material may represent positions, norms, and values that are offensive and objectionable. These materials represent the opinions and actions of their creators. By providing access to these records in our reading room and through our digital collections, we recognize that archives and rare books can play a vital role in holding those creators accountable and in helping us learn from the past.
Our finding aids and other collection descriptions may occasionally re-use language provided by creators or former holders of the materials, but we strive to place outdated or offensive terminology in context. That said, we recognize that we may not always make the right decision and welcome feedback from all sources so we can learn and adjust our practices. Please contact us at scua@uncg.edu if you encounter problematic language in our finding aids or other collection description. We will review the language and, as appropriate, update it in a way that balances preservation of the original context with our ongoing commitment to describing materials with respectful and inclusive language.
Processing Information
Processed by Matthew McCarthy.
- United States. Navy -- History
- United States. Navy -- History -- 20th century
- United States. Navy -- Women
- United States. Navy--Women
- Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Services (WAVES)
- Women and the military
- Women veterans
- World War, 1939-1945
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Armed Forces -- United States -- Correspondence
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Female
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, American
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Women
- Title
- Myrtle Otto Hanke Collection
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Matthew McCarthy
- Date
- 2022 August
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- eng
Repository Details
Part of the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives Repository