San Diego Public Library

California War History Committee (WWI), 1918-1923

California War History Committee (WWI) - San Diego County Branch, 1918-1925, 1918-1923

Summary

Creators:
Abstract:
Extent:
3 boxes, 1.5 linear ft.
Language:
Preferred citation:

California War History Committee (WWI) - San Diego County Branch, 1918-1925. San Diego Public Library

Background

Scope and content:

The California War History Committee commissioned a county branch, the San Diego Historical Committee, to compile records documenting San Diego’s participation in WWI, also known as the Great War. This would help form a greater compilation of “California’s Honor Roll” which would list all of those citizens of California who rendered patriotic services in the war. The San Diego committee put out a search for biographical sketches and photographs. “Biography cards” were distributed by the state and county committees and could be filled out by the service member or family and friends of deceased servicemen. The goal was to honor these individuals and display their names publicly in appreciation of their service and sacrifices, and to preserve their history for future generations. The San Diego Public Library played a large part in this process by helping the committee gather information, putting the compiled list of names on display, and preserving the records. The committees were appointed by then California Governor, William Stephens. The San Diego committee included the city librarian, Althea Warren as the secretary as well as the county librarian. The board of supervisors of San Diego County provided funds for postage and clerical work for the project to mail the biography cards to veterans. They encountered difficulty, however, when nearly half of the addressed cards were returned due to bad addresses. Responding to this, the committee publicly requested help from the community in tracking down and recording information for servicemen. Cards were then returned by mothers, fathers, siblings, and friends of servicemen who had been killed in the war in addition to surviving service members themselves. They were asked to provide two files, (including a photo of the service member in uniform if able) one for the state archives and one for the San Diego public library. Another interesting component to the collection is a large amount of correspondence and biographical information on servicemen from National City. This is owed to the dedication of a woman named Mrs. Fannie Thelen (Mrs. Edmund Thelen) who served as the publicity chair on the San Diego County Women’s Committee. Mrs. Thelen diligently wrote letters to families of service members whom the county had not received information for, in order to obtain their service records and ensure that the National City community received the credit it was due. One challenge she encountered in writing to veterans themselves was convincing them that their contribution to the project would not be seen as gloating. One letter reads “many servicemen think this is a vainglorious thing, but it is not.” Her correspondence and the biographical information she received from families make up about a quarter of the collection. The service members represented throughout the collection come from diversified backgrounds including of all branches of service, varying education level, ethnicity, and gender. Highlights include an African American sailor who professed his love of the Navy, a photograph of a female nurse in her Red Cross uniform, a soldier pictured in front of the Eiffel Tower, a newspaper correspondent who was the brother of Brigadier General Joseph H. Pendleton, and several valor medal recipients.

Access and use

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

San Diego Public Library can only claim physical ownership of the collection. Users are responsible for satisfying any claims of the copyright holder. Permission to copy or publish any portion of San Diego Public Library's collection must be given by the San Diego Public Library.

Preferred citation:

California War History Committee (WWI) - San Diego County Branch, 1918-1925. San Diego Public Library

Location of this collection:
330 Park Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92101, US
Contact:
(619) 238-6668
speccoll@sandiego.gov
Website