William F. Parish First World War correspondence

Collection — Box: WWI 6, Folder: 13, Folder: 1

Identifier: 2017-399-w-r

Staff Only

Content Description

This collection contains correspondence from William F. Parish, USA to his wife during the First World War. The envelope that the letter is kept in re-addresses the letter to Parish's son when he was six and was sixteen. The holder of the envelope was instructed to give the letter to Parish's son when he turned twenty one years old, which would have been 1943 during the Second World War. The letter was written to his wife and discusses what he concisdered the alarmingly unpreparedness of the United States military as it pertained to mechanized warfare as opposed to the old method of transporting supplies and troops using horses and mules. Also included is one photocopied obituary for Parish, New York Times, March 8, 1939.

Dates

1918 July 1

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

There are no restrictions on the use of this material except where previously copyrighted material is concerned. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain all permissions.

Biographical / Historical

William Francis Parish, United States Army (1874 - 1939) worked as an engineer specializing in lubricants all of his professional life. He worked for several companies before serving with the United States Navy during the Spanish-American War aboard the USS monitor Terror in 1898 as a petty officer of the Naval Engineers Division. he returned to civilian life until the government called on him once again as an aeronautical engineer and then to head the newly formed lubrication department of the Signal Corps. He continued in this work and was conducting active research for the government at the time of his death in March 1939 at the age of 65.