Receiving Our Letters
This past Thursday in my first year seminar, we were joined by Susan Falciani Maldonado, the Head of Special Collections & College Archives. Now, that’s a long title and when I initially heard it, I knew I was in for a treat. After Susan introduced herself, she began speaking about the history of Muhlenberg and how the college operated during the World War II era. She told us that the V-12 Navy College Training Program was implemented on college campuses across the United States. This included Muhlenberg! We learned that many of the buildings on campus were converted into barracks and students who attended Muhlenberg were enlisted in this specific program. After speaking for a few minutes, Susan split our class into pairs and we were given letters written by Muhlenberg Alumni who were enlisted in this program. All of the letters which were received by our class contained a correspondence between a serviceman and the Alumni Affairs Office. When Susan came and delivered a thick manilla folder full of envelopes to me and my partner, I was excited. My partner and I opened up the folder and found old, yellowing letters from eighty years ago with a correspondence between a man named Ray Nies and the college. Many of the letters were very wrinkly yet still well contained. Some letters were handwritten, and some were typed with a typewriter. As we were reading our letters, it was sometimes a challenge to decipher the cursive handwriting that had faded away. I was taught how to read cursive in third grade and I was definitely up for the challenge.
Ray Nies
The correspondence between Ray Nies and Alumni Office spanned a period of time between 1945 and 1951. When reading through the letters, we learned that Nies wrote about his life as a Marine from his training at Quantico, a Marine Corps base in Virginia, to his duties around the Pacific including San Diego, Guam, and Japan. In one letter which we read, we were shocked to read that Nies visited Nagasaki and offered his perspective of the destruction he witnessed. Neither me nor my partner were expecting to read such a letter and we found the content extremely jarring. Throughout the letters, Nies shared his loyalty and continued interest in Muhlenberg’s athletic teams by peppering the Director of Alumni Affairs with questions. Additionally, Nies showed his loathing towards Muhlenberg’s decision to become a co-educational institution. He would write for paragraphs expressing his dislike towards this decision and even asked jokingly asked how soon it would be until Muhlenberg added a fashion department. (They still haven’t). It was not until he had a daughter did he appreciate the academics he received which propelled him to realize the educational value for her to receive an education. While reading letters that contained similar content to this, we wondered how soon his way of thinking changed from opposing the decision to appreciating. Did he have a conversation with a colleague? Did he actually come to terms with Muhlenberg’s educational transition?
Reading these letters opened up a new world for me and gave me insight and a new perspective into how a World War II serviceman lived during this time. I am curious to read more of these letters and see this topic as a possibility for my research paper.
