Hiroshima-shi (Japan) -- History -- Bombardment, 1945
Date:
1925-1946
undated
bulk 1940-1946
Summary:
World War II personal papers, photographs, and printed material of Anthony R. Lanza, who served in the U.S. Army in Japan between 1944 and 1946.
Scope and Contents:
The collection documents Anthony Lanza's United States Army service in Japan during World War II, mostly through letters and photographs. Also included are miscellaneous items such as newsletters, clippings, drawings, Japanese travel and language guides, and official military papers. Particular research value lies in the photographic documentation of Hiroshima shortly after the atomic bomb was dropped, photographs of the Enola Gay, and an eyewitness account by a survivor.
Series 1, Photographs, 1925, 1944, 1945, 1946, undated, contains documentation of Lanza's time in Japan during World War II, divided by subject matter. Many of the photographs are annotated on the reverse side. Included in the collection are photographs of the Enola Gay, Hiroshima shortly after the atomic bomb was dropped, and the 308th General Hospital in Japan. There are also several photographs of landscapes and Japanese citizens. The folder containing street scenes includes one formal portrait of a Japanese family Lanza encountered in his travels. There are also photographs not taken in Japan, including images of Niagara Falls.
Series 2, Personal Papers, 1940s, undated, contains various papers that belonged to Lanza, including his diary, several letters to his mother written from Japan, a scrapbook, a first person account of the Hiroshima bombing written by Reverend John A. Siemes, military papers (special orders, immunization records, payroll information, and discharge papers), military newsletters, newspaper and magazine clippings, and various sketches and notes. The newspaper and magazine subjects contain information regarding a relative, a blurb about a DDT insecticide experiment, and information regarding musical performances.
Series 3, Materials Related to Japan, 1945, undated, contains two Japanese language books, a tourist magazine, and a book created for tourism about Japan dated 1945.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged in three series.
Series 1, Photographs, 1925, 1944, 1945, 1946, undated
Series 2, Personal Papers, 1940s, undated
Series 3, Materials Related to Japan, 1945, undated
Biographical / Historical:
Dr. Anthony R. Lanza was born July 20, 1925, in New York City. He was inducted into the United States Army in March of 1944, worked at the 308th General Hospital in Japan, and received an honorable discharge in May of 1946. He attained the rank of Master Sergeant and received the American Campaign Medal, Good Conduct Medal, Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal, and World War II Victory Medal. Lanza later worked as a public school teacher in Union, New Jersey, and Valley Stream, New York, as well as a faculty member of the School of Education at New York University. He also served as Chief of the NESA Education Branch in AID/Washington, as an Education Advisor in Turkey for nine years, and as a USAID Chief Education Officer in Guatemala, Afghanistan, and Pakistan for twelve years. He went on to work as Regional Education Officer for Africa for the Office of Overseas Schools in the U.S. State Department.
Related Materials:
World War II Bomb Damage Photographs contains photographs of the aftermath of the bombings in Nagasaki, Japan, and Manila in the Philippines. Emilio Segre Collection documents research relating to the development of the atomic bomb.
Provenance:
Anthony Lanza's son, Kenneth Lanza, donated this collection in 2005 and additional materials were donated in 2007.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research use. Researchers must handle unprotected photographs with gloves.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
As a teenager, Virgil Johnson [b.1918] became interested in the designs and symbols on cigarette packs like "Black Cat" and "White Roll", and he began actively collecting in the 1930s. His interest intensified during the 1940s when he was stationed in North Africa and across the Mediterranean region as a photographer with the U.S. Navy. Mr. Johnson collected cigarette packs for over fifty years, and was a member of the Cigarette Pack Collector's Association.
Approximately 6000 cigarette packages, foreign and American, arranged in 24 albums. Manufacturers include names such as those shown below.
Scope and Contents:
The collection consists of approximately 6,000 cigarette packages, ca. 1890-1997, arranged in 24 albums. The cigarette packages offer a strong base for research into the categories of visual imagery created, associated with, and manipulated for the sale of tobacco products. Researchers interested in the history of design will also find these packages a useful source, as they reflect design modifications (in image, logo, typeface, and package features) over time for virtually every brand marketed in the U.S. and an enormous selection of those marketed overseas, by both U.S. and other global tobacco concerns.
Series 3: BOOKS ABOUT TOBACCO AND TOBACCO COLLECTING These titles have been transferred to NMAH Library.
Arrangement:
The collection is divided into 3 series.
Series 1: Cigarette Packages
Series 2: Articles and Other Publications About Tobacco
Series 3: Books About Tobacco and Tobacco Collecting
Biographical / Historical:
As a teenager, Virgil Johnson [b.1918] became interested in the designs and symbols on cigarette packs like Black Cat and White Roll, and he began actively collecting in the 1930s. His interest intensified during the 1940s when he was stationed in North Africa and across the Mediterranean region as a photographer with the U.S. Navy. Mr. Johnson collected cigarette packs for over fifty years, and was a member of the Cigarette Pack Collector=s Association.
Related Materials:
The Archives Center is nationally recognized as a site in which to pursue research into the history of tobacco advertising. The Warshaw Collection (AC 60) include many thousands of tobacco advertisements and cigar box labels from the 19th and 20th centuries; the Ayer Collection (AC 59) includes advertising proofsheets for American Tobacco, Phillip Morris, R.J. Reynolds and other cigarette and cigar manufacturers since the 1870s. The Marlboro Collection (AC 198) includes print ads, company publications, and oral history interviews with tobacco industry and advertising agency personnel. The Walter Landor/Landor Associates Industrial Design Collection (AC 500) includes documentation on package design for numerous tobacco companies since the 1950s, and the newly acquired Sandra and Gary Baden Collection of Celebrity Endorsements in Advertising (AC 611) contains several hundred ads featuring movie stars, singers, politicians, and athletes promoting tobacco products since the 1890s.
4,000 cigarettes, also donated by Mr. Johnson, each contained in a screw top glass vial, were donated to the Center for Disease Control's Office of Smoking and Health in Atlanta, Georgia.
Separated Materials:
Thirty (30) empty wood, metal, and plastic cigarette packs are also part of the Virgil Johnson Collection. They are housed with the Consumer Culture Collections in the Cultural History Division, which also holds several dozen cigarette packs from the Walter Landor/Landor Associates Industrial Design Collection (AC 500).
Provenance:
The collection was donated to the Archives Center of the National Museum of American History in July 1998, by Mr. Virgil Johnson, a resident of Alexandria, Virginia.
The collection was donated to the Archives Center of the National Museum of American History in July 1998, by Mr. Virgil Johnson, a resident of Alexandria, Virginia.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Cultural History, Division of (NMAH, SI). Search this
Cultural History, Division of (NMAH, SI). Search this
Extent:
3 Cubic feet (7 boxes, 1 flat oversized box)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Family papers
Photographs
Ledgers (account books)
Business records
Correspondence
Trade catalogs
Certificates
Date:
1895-1992
Summary:
Letters, envelopes and other business records relating to the cutlery business of J & D Miller, Bronx, New York.
Scope and Contents:
The collection is divided into three series. The first series consists of personal documents relating to Joseph Miller's life and his family history. The second series consists of business records from the cutlery shop; this series contains four subseries, including purchase orders from the United States, purchase orders from foreign countries, photographs, and miscellaneous business records. The third series contains materials relating to the collection itself and how it came to the Smithsonian Institution.
Arrangement:
Collection is divided into 4 series.
Series 1: personal, circa 1885-1971
Series 2: Business, circa 1950-1992
Biographical / Historical:
Joseph Miller (1885-1971) was born in Russia, a second son in a Jewish family of seven children. All nine Millers emigrated to the United States in the early twentieth century, bringing with them the family cutlery business. Joseph became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1912, and in 1917, he joined his brother David in business, forming J & D Miller. The shop specialized in fashioning circumcision knives and kosher knives, like the schochet, for rabbis and mohels. In addition, the company also made knives for surgeons, circus performers, and industrial uses, sold sharpening stones, and accepted dull or broken knives for repair. The company of J & D Miller, communicating in English and Yiddish, shipped its merchandise all over the United States and to foreign countries as remote as Afghanistan, Argentina, and Algeria.
Joseph had two children, Irving and Irene, by his first wife, Essie. In 1961, Joseph lost an adult son, possibly a child from his second marriage, to Gertie. Although Joseph retired from J & D Miller in 1955 at the age of 70, he continued fashioning knives in a basement workshop of his Laurelton home. At his death at 86, Joseph was still receiving international requests for his knives. Joseph was committed to keeping the Miller clan together in America; his poems and family correspondence reveal a man devoted to his family.
Provenance:
Donated by Irene Galdston in 1992.
Restrictions:
Collection is ope for research.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
