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War Service Libraries
On Veterans Day we remember and are thankful for those in uniform who served our country. Cleveland Public Library's motto of "Books, Information, Service" was particularly fitting as the Library was very much engaged in the war effort over the years, providing books to our service members and even sending library staff to serve overseas.
During WWI, the United States government asked the American Library Association to set up libraries for troops in 32 military camps. The Cleveland Public Library held fundraising drives for these war service libraries.
Besides his duties as director of CPL, William Howard Brett served on the Finance Committee of the ALA War Service. He also served as the dispatch agent at Newport News, Virginia, overseeing the shipment of books to troops overseas.
This bookplate, designed by the New York artist, Mr. C.B. Falls, was a memorial to William H. Brett after his death in August 1918. At the time of his death, the suggestion was made that instead of flowers, Brett would have preferred contributions to purchase books to be given to soldiers.
Annie Cutter was a CPL staff member assigned to a camp library at St. Aignan-Noyer, 70 miles southwest of Paris during the war. Ms. Cutter wrote "He (Brett) would be gratified by the number of Cleveland books which come in all the boxes shipped to us. They far outstrip those from any other city." (The Open Shelf, April 1919)
Every professionally trained person in the library was in turn loaned to serve as Librarian at Camp Sherman, near Chillicothe. Service there lasted from five weeks to several months. Carl Vitz, Vice-Librarian, and Gordon Thayer, head of the White Collection, both served at Camp Sherman. Some librarians were sent further away, and even overseas. Marilla Freeman, a Librarian at Cleveland Public Library and pictured at the far right in the above photo, served as hospital librarian at the Red Cross Convalescent House at Camp Dix, New Jersey. Another CPL librarian, Louise Prouty, served in France and Germany.
This bookplate dates from WWII. In February, 1946, the Library received a $400 check from the Council for American Soviet Friendship to buy Russian books in the memory of Mr. Robert Fritzmeier. the Secretary of the Council. Fritzmeier was an Army Sergeant and died February 9th, 1945 in the Battle of the Bulge. He was survived by a wife and son. He attended Oberlin College in the 1930's and later was the Cleveland manager of the National Youth Administration, and organization that trained young men and women workers for the war industries.
Our appreciation to Danilo Milich, Center for Local and Global History, for research on Robert Fritzmeier which allowed us to fill in the story behind this bookplate.
“‘Books for Borden’ crowd the entrance to Kiwanis Trinity ‘K’ club entrance, as Lorne Broley, chairman of Kiwanis war services commission, presents 1,200 volumes to Col. C. R. Hill, director of auxiliary services for M.D. 2. Looking on are Mary Floyd, nurse at the ‘K’ club which serves 1,760 boys, and W. J. Telford.”
- from the Toronto Star. April 5, 1941. Page 21.
“Brampton Rapidly Becomes Town Without Young Men,” Toronto Star. December 11, 1941. Page 8. ---- Not More Than Five Boys Over 17 in High School, Says Principal ---- WAR SEEN CAUSE --- Brampton, Dec. 11 - While Brampton is certainly no ghost town, it is rapidly growing to be a community with almost no young men.
‘I’ve become aware of the astonishing storage of enlistment-age men only during the past week,’ Mayor R. P. Worthy told The Star. ’They just seem to have vanished form our streets.’
‘We haven’t more than five boys over 17 in the high school,’ Principal T. W. Martin said. ‘This is not entirely due to enlistment, because many of our boys have taken courses and gone to Malton to work in industry. A football team was quite out of the question, although we should be able to develop one or more basketball teams. The few older boys we have left are excellent students and it’s quite right they should complete their educations. Men of their type will be needed.’
‘Almost all the boys I went to high school with are no longer here,’ Miss Dorothy Boddam said. ‘It’s particularly noticeable at dances. Before the war there was always a stag line. Now there are almost no men at all.’
A check at the municipal offices revealed that poll tax payments were far below pre-war days. An official said this was due to the fact that enlisted men were exempt from such payments.
‘It’s almost an event when a young man applies for work here,’ E. A. Innes, Ontario agricultural representative for Peel county, said ‘In a normal year we expect from 400 to 500 men in here looking for farm jobs. We don’t get 25 per cent of that number these days.’
16 Marine Corps Military Items, .925 Ring,Honorable Discharge Button,War Service
16 Marine Corps Military Items, .925 Ring,Honorable Discharge Button,War Service -
Buy – 16 Marine Corps Military Items, .925 Ring,Honorable Discharge Button,War Service