Mary Jane DeWan Collection
Content Description
The collection includes an oral history transcript, 28 January 1999; various photographs of DeWan’s service with the Army Nurse Corps, 1943-1945; a newspaper clipping titled “Wedding Told” announcing her wedding, 4 December 1945.
Dates
- circa 1943-1999
Conditions Governing Access
The 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
Mary Jane DeWan (1922-2015), of Franklin Park, Illinois, served in the South Pacific while in the Army Nurse Corps (ANC) from 1943 to 1946. Mary Jane DeWan of Franklin Park, Illinois, graduated from high school in River Forest in 1938. She attended nurses training at Oak Park Hospital in Oak Park, Illinois, finishing in June 1941. She then served briefly as a registered nurse at the Loyola University Hospital in Illinois.
DeWan joined the ANC in August 1942. She was sent to Camp Swift in Bastrop, Texas, as a second lieutenant, and then in June 1943 was assigned to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in preparation for overseas duty. In September 1943, she married John DeWan, and in November she left Camp Stoneman in San Francisco, California for Brisbane, Australia.
In January 1944, DeWan departed Australia for Oro Bay, New Guinea, where she was assigned to the 10th Station Hospital. In September 1944, she went to Finschhafen, New Guinea, and a few months later when her unit was changed to the 1st Field Hospital, she traveled to Leyte, Philippines, via Biak, New Guinea, and Peleliu in the Palau Islands.
In August 1945, DeWan was stationed at Mindanao, Philippines. She stayed there until November 1945 when she returned to the United States. DeWan was discharged from the army in March 1946, and she and her husband returned to Illinois. She returned to nursing twenty-five later and worked for a decade before retiring.
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.
- United States. Army -- Nurses
- United States. Army -- Nurses -- Interviews
- United States. Army Nurse Corps -- Interviews
- United States. Army Nurse Corps -- Military life
- United States. Army Nurse Corps -- Women
- Women and the military
- Women veterans
- World War, 1939-1945
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Female
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Women
- Title
- Mary Jane DeWan 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