World War II touched nearly all aspects of American life and changed the course of many people’s lives forever. Some were relocated to work in factories, others were sent across the world to directly participate in military operations, and some were transferred across the country for training. In order to stay in touch, some recorded their experience through photos. Some soldiers were sent across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe to fight in what is considered the "European Theatre", while others such as Albert went across the Pacific Ocean to the "Pacific Theatre."
One such person is Albert Schwarz. He joined the army and recorded his journey through pictures taken across America that were later arranged into a scrapbook by his wife, Jane Schwarz. The 103 pages contain images that capture moments throughout his military career and his return home with his friends and family. Created nearly 100 years ago, the original scrapbook, entitled “Life In The Army” has worn down and is in a very delicate state. Its current condition requires that it be stored in the University of Mary Washington’s Special Collection for preservation. Contact Angie Kemp at awhite4@umw.edu to view the original source.
This website is the result of a project conducted by a group in Digital History (HIST 428). The process required many hours of uploading, transcribing, and making sure the images were as accessible as possible. Much care and attention to detail were put into this digital project to make sure that the scrapbook could be viewed by a larger audience, while still giving justice and preserving the authenticity of the original source. Not only is this website digitization of “Life In The Army”, but it is also a celebration of both his life as a private and his private life.
Mission Statement: We wish to highlight both the personal and military experience of a World War II Veteran through his personal family scrapbook. We want to explore his life by emphasizing the images and captions he provided. We want the website to be inviting but not distracting in terms of color and theme, especially with larger black and white images.
