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Virginia Young Van Dongen Collection

 Collection
Identifier: WV 0015

Content Description

The collection includes an oral history transcript, 10 November 1999; various photographs of van Dongen’s SPAR’s service, 1944-1945.

Dates

  • circa 1944 - 1945

Creator

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

Virginia "Ginny" Young Van Dongen of Rochester, New York, served with the United States Coast Guard SPARs (Semper Paratus--Always Ready) from 1943 to 1945. Virginia Van Dongen was born near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and raised in Rochester, New York. Her father operated an upscale grocery store and her mother was a homemaker.

Van Dongen attended John Marshall High School and began working for Eastman Kodak as a keypunch operator, probably in 1940. Van Dongen joined the SPARs in 1943 and completed basic training in West Palm Beach, Florida. After nine days as a keypunch operator in Washington, D.C., Van Dongen attended radio school in Atlantic City, New Jersey, for five months.

She served from the fall of 1943 to the fall of 1945 in communications at Port Angeles, Washington. Van Dongen was discharged as a radioman third class in late 1945. Van Dongen returned to her job at Eastman Kodak after the war. She was married in May 1946 and raised eight children.

Extent

0.21 Linear Feet (2 folders)

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.

Title
Virginia Young van Dongen Collection
Status
Completed
Author
Matthew McCarthy
Date
2022 May
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

Contact:
P.O. Box 26170
320 College Ave.
Greensboro NC 27402-6170 US
336-334-5246