Edward S. Van Duyn World War I Collection, 1916-1918

Summary

Creator:
Van Duyn, Edward S.
Abstract:
American physician, World War I army and Syracuse, New York. Collection includes correspondence, photographs, scrapbooks, other material relating to his experiences establishing hospitals in France during World War I.
Extent:
1 linear ft.
Language:
Majority in English , some items in French
Preferred citation:

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Edward S. Van Duyn World War I Collection,

Background

Scope and content:

The Edward S. Van Duyn World War I Collection includes correspondence, photographs, scrapbooks and a history of U.S. Army Base Hospital #31. The material relates to two separate trips to France. The first was in 1916, before the United States entered the war, when Van Duyn joined a group of volunteer American doctors who went to France to help care for the wounded. The second, in 1918, was with a Syracuse hospital unit that served American forces in France.

Correspondence contains incoming correspondence, most of it relating to hospital work but also a few personal notes.

Memorabilia contains photographs, postcards, scrapbooks and other items. Some of the photographs and postcards are annotated on the back with names or places and others not. Included here are photographs of Edward Van Duyn and of his father John Van Duyn, also a physician. Official documents include passports and military identification cards and documents, in both French and English. Personal documents include clippings, a course schedule for Syracuse University College of Medicine for 1917-1918, business and trade cards, programs and tickets from events, and other items.

The most significant items of memorabilia are two scrapbooks, one from each of Van Duyn's tours in France. Both contain photographs, postcards, clippings, letters, notes, and other items relating to the physicians and nurses of the Hospital Unit G and their experiences. The second, from the 1918 tour, is extensively annotated by Van Duyn with names, dates, events, and memories. Included in this scrapbook is a two-page spread on Armistice Day, with notes relating how Van Duyn and another officer tried to get to the battle field that day, crossing through Verdun ("a city of the dead") and crawling in and out of abandoned German trenches where they found "half-eaten meals, abandoned personnel belongings, guns and dead bodies." Photographs, both originals and in the form of postcards, include hospitals, ambulances, and surgery wards; ruined houses and landscapes; officers, doctors and nurses both on duty and at leisure; and more. A few negatives show a group of men standing around a crashed biplane.

Writings contains Van Duyn's diary containing notes on his experiences, specifically relating to medical practice in wartime; a three-page typescript describing in vivid detail the sounds heard at night near the front; and a published history of Army Base Hospital No. 31 stamped on the cover with Van Duyn's name in gold. This last item has been transferred to Rare Books for cataloging, but a photocopy of the cover and title page remains in the collection.

Biographical / historical:

Edward Seguin Van Duyn (1872-1955) was an American physician from Syracuse, New York. His father John Van Duyn, also a physician in Syracuse, gave his son the middle name "Seguin" in honor of Édouard Séguin, a French physician who emigrated to New York and was known for his work with the mentally handicapped. Edward S. Van Duyn graduated from Princeton University and received his M.D. at Syracuse University in 1897. He was a military surgeon during World War I with the American Expeditionary Force, a professor of clinical surgery at Syracuse University Medical School, a practicing physician in Syracuse for many years, and president of the board of managers of the Syracuse State Institution for the Feeble Minded.

Acquisition information:

Gift of Mrs. William G. Lapham , 1970.

Gift of John Van Duyn , 1970.

Arrangement:

Correspondence is in chronological order. Writings are in alphabetical order by title. Remaining series are in alphabetical order by type of material.

Access and use

Restrictions:

The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.

Terms of access:

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

Preferred citation:

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Edward S. Van Duyn World War I Collection,

Location of this collection:
Special Collections Research Center
Syracuse University Libraries
Bird Library, Room 600
Syracuse, NY 13244, United States
Link to repository site
Contact:
315.443.2697
scrc@syr.edu