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U.S. Navy.

[Lot of twelve real photo postcards of male African American naval recruits during World War II.]

U.S. Naval Training Station, Great Lakes, IL, July 30, 1943. 12 real photo postcards, 5.875” x 3.5”. Inscriptions in pencil and blue ink at lower margin. CONDITION: Very good.

A wonderful gathering of full-length portraits of Black navy recruits in uniform, many posed in various drill and ceremonial positions, at the mammoth naval training center in Great Lakes, Illinois.

This lot of portraits show young recruits variously posted—standing, saluting, holding a gun—most photographed standing in front of a tree with a large building in the background. One photo, showing a kneeling “Willie Jackson” smiling up at the camera, is taken just outside a shingled building. The portrait of Earl W. Campbell, who smiles while standing in parade rest (one hand behind his back, the other holding a rifle whose butt rests on the ground by his right foot) is inscribed below the image “Your shipmate and pal” and on the verso:

July 30, 1943
U.S. Naval Training Station
Great Lakes, Ill
From a shipmate
Earl W. Campbell

Others named on their portraits include R. Denson, Willie Jackson, R. Lett, M. T. Swanson, S. T. Tyes, and more, as well as several identified only by their last name: Biggs, Simon, Thorton, and Malone.

Established in 1911, the Naval Station Great Lakes (NSGL) is the largest naval training station in the U.S., located on the shore of Lake Michigan about fifty miles north of Chicago. Although activity at the base shrank dramatically between the first and second World Wars, within a month of Pearl Harbor, the Navy announced a $33 million, and by 1942 the population of the base had increased from ten to seventy-five thousand men. “During the course of World War II, Great Lakes supplied about a million men, just over a third of all personnel who served in the U.S. Navy” (“Great Lakes”).

REFERENCES: “Great Lakes Naval Training Station” at Encyclopedia of Chicago online.

Item #9800

Price: $675.00

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