William B. Richard World War II letters

Overview

During February 12 and November 2, 1945, Corporal (later Sergeant) William B. Richard wrote a collection of 15 letters to his mother, Mrs. Sarah Richard in Akron, Ohio. This object was made when he was stationed in Tezgaon, Dhaka in then-British India, in the China-Burma-India theatre of World War II. World War II was a global conflict that occurred during 1939 till 1945. The main countries involved were Germany, France, England, Russia and later on, the US. The US involvement was crucial to the victory of the allies. As seen from the one soldier, the US army was deployed worldwide even to India.

Ownership

The letters made by William B. Richard were purchased from Kurt Kitasaki, 2010. It was purchased from Kurt Kitasaki by the University of Pennsylvania in 2010, making the publisher now the University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts. There is no evidence of the object being copyrighted or licensed.

Physical Analysis

Substrate

The letter are composed of combination of different material however the most prominent is wood pulp based paper. This is due to the paper having a light tan color and a very thin and fragile feel. This is what was available at the time. There were consistently only 3 sheets of paper used in each of the letters. This limit can be explained with the wood pump shortage that occurred beginning in 1943 because of labor shortages in the US and Canada. Wood pulp supply fell from 12 million tons in 1942 to 11 million tons in 1943. Rationing controls on wood pulp began in late 1943 and lasted until 1945. https://albionalumni.org/chevrons/ww2/oth/w2pap.html

Pulp paper is made from timber cut into logs and then converted into fibrous masses. It is then placed in a digester for further pulp refining consisting of washing, screening and bleaching. Then, the pulp is treated to form individual fibers and is made into a furnish. The sheets of paper pass into presses and dryers and then cut. The production of pulp is around 200 mills and the paper production is 2000 mils. This intricate process was responsible for the formation of the letters William wrote to his mother.

The use of wood based pulp paper was essential to the war. Its utility spawned a number of industries. For example, it was needed for transmitting complicated data or instructions which were responsible for constructing new military equipment, for packaging especially food products and communication like letters. The industry had over 3,000 establishments and employed over a million wage earners. Furthermore, it was interconnected with other industries such as the electrical supply and transportation. When shortages began to emerge in 1942, it limited the amount of paper available for sending letters and for many other applications. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/files/docs/publications/SCB/pages/1940-1944/3409_1940-1944.pdf

Format

The book object is a letter. The biographical format is three loose manuscript sheets. They are about 30 centimeters by 15 centimeters in size and are written on both sides. They are not folded so are therefore not a folio, quarto, octavo, etc. so it is three loose manuscript sheets. The object is not bound at all. It is made up of usually 3 single sheets of paper and they have no attachment to one another.