Skip to main content

Isabella Peterson Evans Collection

 Collection
Identifier: WV 0173

Content Description

The collection includes an oral history transcript, 15 June 2000; a photograph of Evans Women's Army Corps service, 1945.

Dates

  • circa 1945-2000

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

Isabella Peterson Evans (1919-2007) of Clemson, North Carolina, served with the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) and Women's Army Corps (WAC) from 1942 to 1945. She was part of the all African-American 6888th Central Postal Battalion.

Isabella Peterson Evans was born in Clemson, North Carolina, on 6 December 1919. Her father was a blacksmith and her mother was a homemaker. In 1931, after the death of her parents, Peterson moved to Washington, D.C., to live with relatives. She graduated from Cardozo High School in 1940 and worked in the afternoons as a maid. Peterson worked in the navy department's post office in Washington, D.C., as a civilian before joining the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) in December 1942. She attended basic training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, in February 1943 before being stationed at Fort Clark, Texas, in May 1943.

While serving as a postal clerk in a segregated African American unit there, Peterson re-enlisted in the WAC. She also married Oscar Evans, a member of the 2nd Cavalry, in November 1943. In the summer of 1944, Peterson was sent to Camp Gruber in Okalahoma, where she served as a company clerk. In March 1945 Peterson was sent overseas to Birmingham, England, with the 6888th postal detachment. She sorted mail in England for three months and then in Rouen, France, until November 1945.

She left the army and returned to her job with the postal service in Washington, D.C., in late 1945. Evans' husband remained in the service and the family lived in Indiana, Boston, and Germany. The Evans were divorced in the late 1960s, and Isabella Evans settled in North Carolina in the early 1980s. Evans passed on 29 December 2007.

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
Isabella Peterson Evans Collection
Status
Completed
Author
Matthew McCarthy
Date
2022 June
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