Charles F. Snyder papers

The Charles F. Snyder Papers consist primarily of correspondence from the period of World War II from and to Charles F. Snyder while he was serving in the Army Air Corps.

The letters from Charles to his parents, Horace G. and Esther Snyder, of Bryan, Ohio, essentially cover the period from late May 1943 until early April 1944, while he was apparently assigned to a relocation center in England. He gave numbers to each letter, so it is easy to determine when there are any gaps. Because of wartime censorship, the contents of the letters deal primarily with his off-duty activities, mutual friends, comments about family news and other letters he's received, particularly from Marie. War news is commented on only in a general way, such as the fall of Mussolini and prospects for the war in Italy.

The more extensive groups of correspondence to Charles from his parents and fiancée fill in some of the chronological gaps in his letters to them, including a series from 1944 from Marie that isn't covered in other letter groups.

Although Charles's letters home were censored, some of the locations he served can be identified by information given in the letters from his parents, such as his posting in Belgium in the letter of 4 January 1945. Because Esther Snyder was a beautician she often heard about what was going on with other people in town and passed the news along in her letters, especially about family friends and other young men in the service. She also mentioned the everyday situation of food rationing on the home front and talks about shortages and how they impact people, for example, the letter of May 3, 1942 makes reference to potential effect of sugar shortage on Spangler Candy in Bryan.

Marie Jost (later Marie Snyder) wrote letters both to Charles and to his parents. The series of correspondence she wrote to Mr. & Mrs. Snyder cover June 1943 through February 1944. In all the letters she provides a glimpse of what the home front is like in St. Louis, including comments about working at the Emerson Electric plant (where gun turrets were made), shortages, rationing points, and stamps. Since her letters cover some of the same period as Charles' letters to his parents, they provide a different viewpoint of the same events, including Marie's hospitalization for appendicitis in Sept. 1943.

The letters from Marie to Charles extend throughout the period from July 1942, shortly after they met (mentioned in Charles' letter to his parents of June 1, 1942) until after they were married in 1946 (with a gap in 1943). As an example of a woman involved in war-work, many letters mention her job Emerson Electric (explained in her letter of August 2, 1942), doing frazing or working a lathe, co-workers, job-related accidents, visiting dignitaries, and general comments on events in the plant. She also mentions mutual friends he met while stationed at Jefferson Barracks, family matters, her social activities, including the U.S.O., where apparently she volunteered, and various movies and records. The letters written to Charles once he is posted overseas are numbered, but unfortunately all from 1943 are missing and the sequence starts with letter #148 in January 1944 through #261 in May 1944. Some of the content can be inferred by memo notes that Charles kept of the letters. Later letters are of scattered dates, but extend to the post-war period to September 1945, with some from January 1946.