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Box 1: Correspondence, 1927- March 1940

 File

Scope and Contents

From the File:

Craig routinely kept incoming envelopes and replaced both the incoming letter, any enclosures, and a copy of his reply within the envelope. They were mostly filed chronologically by the postmark. Sometimes there are several letters in a single envelope. During processing the contents of the envelopes were removed and flattened. If the envelope had information not included in the heading, it was retained and clipped to the back of the incoming correspondence. If the letter was undated, the processor added the date of the postmark in brackets. Occasionally circa dates in brackets have been added to undated letters without an envelope based on where they filed. Undatable letters and other material are filed at the end of the series. Letters written during WWII often displayed a significant difference between the date of a letter and its postmark which indicates when it entered the U.S. postal system. These letters are arranged by date they were written, with the envelope attached to show when they entered the U.S. Post Office system. Due to the extreme acidity of much of the paper used, many affected letters and enclosed newspaper clippings have been scanned by the family and are present on the CDs and/or thumb drives created by the family. The original items were retained, but are extremely fragile and many of them in are in fragments. These letters give a vibrant description of daily lives of this large family’s members as the siblings grew up, dated, married, had children, joined the military, started businesses, sought employment and generally lived their lives. This group of materials gives a vivid account of the Great Depression and World War II, both in the European and Pacific Theatres of War as well as on the home front.

Dates

  • Creation: 1910s - 1990s

Creator

Extent

From the Collection: 20 Linear Feet (24 boxes)

Language of Materials

From the Collection: English

Processing Information

Processor’s note: Most of the correspondence before WWII was received in rough chronological order, regardless of who sent or received a letter. Beginning in late 1943 there are many letters received by Murray W. Craig from his brothers in the Navy and Army, as well as from home. These were gathered into a few large envelopes. At this time, Murray and Ailene were living in Oak Ridge, TN. Also beginning in late 1943, there were many letters from Jon Robert Craig to his mother and other family members, also held separately. The processor interfiled these discrete groups of mail with the other war correspondence, by order by date of writing or by postmark, as before. The letters from Jon Robert’s friends Clyde Armour, Jr.; James Varner “Jimmy” or “Jim” Davis; finance Marjorie “Margie” Faulkner; Salonshi Haimin; Thomas Franklin “Frank” Joerg, Jr.; W.W. Rainey; J.A.Savage; Rachel Smith; T.H. Willis; and J.P. Womack are filed separately in the Friends & Employers sub-series. “Scrapbook” letters as received were pasted onto loose-leave note-book pages. They are mostly from family members, but there are several from friends and also from unidentified people. The pages were loose, but originally had been arranged by year and had a page number beginning with 1 for each year. The processor detached the glued-on envelopes, removed the contents and clipped them to their envelopes, which were then filed by date. There are also letters related to Craig’s scouting activities. Susie Hagins/Scrapbook Letters Processor’s note: the first few folders have a general description of the subjects of the letter to give a general idea of the level of detail contained in the correspondence.

Repository Details

Part of the Columbus State University Archives and Special Collections Repository

Contact:
4225 University Ave
Columbus Georgia 31907 United States