Betty Magnusson Collection
Scope and Contents
Letters from Magnusson to a friend at home in Duluth, Minnesota, chiefly document Magnusson's service with the Women's Army Corps (WAC) in Iowa, Virginia, and France. Letters from Fort Des Moines describe WAC uniforms; drills, including a gas mask drill; WAC facilities and buildings; and social activities at the fort and in Des Moines. Letters from Newport News detail Magnusson's perspective on the South and southerners; the reaction of male soldiers and civilians to the WACs; entertainment, including dances, movies, holiday parties, and snowball fights; and dating and weddings in the military.
Detailed letters from Paris, document Magnusson's overall impressions of the city and specific sights; Red Cross and army facilities; leisure activities, including Christmas celebrations, Parisian nightclubs, military weddings, music, and service clubs; overseas uniforms and patches; and war news. Magnusson also provides vivid descriptions of VE Day parades and celebrations and explains her conflicting desires to remain in the service and to return to civilian life.
Also included is a 1943 letter from a male soldier stationed at Camp Peary in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Dates
- 1943-1945
Creator
- Magnusson, Betty (Person)
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 Note
Betty Magnusson of Duluth, Minnesota, served in the Women's Army Corps during World War II. She attended basic training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, in 1943 and was then stationed at Newport News, Virginia, from April 1943 to at least January 1944. Magnusson served in Paris, France, from September 1944 to June 1945 as secretary to a general with the 29th Traffic Regulating Group.
Extent
.08 Linear Feet (Document folder with 4 folders )
Language of Materials
English
Metadata Rights Declarations
- License: This record is made available under an Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Creative Commons license.
Method of Acquisition
Purchased in 2006.
Offensive Language Statement
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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 Beth Carmichael, February 2006.
- Iowa -- Description and travel
- Magnusson, Betty
- Paris (France) -- Description and travel
- Sectionalism (United States)
- Southern States
- United States. Army -- Military life
- United States. Army--Women
- United States. Army. Women's Army Corps -- History
- Virginia -- Description and travel
- Women and the military
- Women and the military
- Women in war
- Women soldiers -- Minnesota -- Correspondence
- Women veterans
- Women veterans -- United States
- World War, 1939-1945
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Female
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Women -- United States
- Title
- Betty Magnusson Collection
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Beth Carmichael
- Date
- 2007 January
- 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