1.6 Postcards, circa 1918

File — Box: 1, Folder: 11

Scope and Contents

From the Collection: The George W. Outerbridge Papers, 1916-1919, contain letters and postcards, a fragment of a diary, and photographs, documenting Outerbridge's experiences as a member of the Pennsylvania Hospital Unit in France during World War I.

Series 1 contains letters, 1917-1918, addressed by Outerbridge to family members, particularly his father, A. E. Outerbridge, and aunt, Laura C. Outerbridge. The letters describe Outerbridge's transatlantic voyage, conditions in France, and the daily routine of a physician in both Base Hospital No. 10 at Le Treport and Mobile Hospital 8 during the war. Items of special interest, describing the routine handling of patients at Base Hospital No. 10, are two letters, 14 September 1917 and 8 January 1918, to A. E. Outerbridge and a letter, 7 November 1917, to Laura C. Outerbridge.

Series 2 contains entries of a diary, 18-19 August 1917, written by Outerbridge at sea and describing events during his voyage to France on the S.S. Aurania.

The bulk of the Outerbridge Papers, Series 3, is comprised of photographs. There are a few unbound mounted images of Outerbridge's naval volunteer cruise aboard the U.S.S. Rhode Island, August September 1916, and two albums (disbound) of photographs from France. The first album, 1917-1919, contains photographs of the voyage of the Aurania, the staff and facilities at Base Hospital No. 10 at Le Treport, and items of interest to tourists in the surrounding cities and countryside. The second album, 1918-1919, contains photographs of the staff and equipment of Mobile Hospital 8 taken while at Exermont and Varennes. There are also several images of German guns, bombs, and shelters and a dug out in the Argonne.