Baldwin Military Collection Opens

At Library

ROXBURY — The Hanson Baldwin Military History Collection, a 1,200 book collection donated to the library by the family of the late Hanson Baldwin has been opened at Minor Memorial Library. Mr Baldwin was a military affairs correspondent of The New York Times for more than 20 years.

“We are proud to be the recipient of this remarkable collection and we welcome researchers, college students, history buffs, and school children to make extensive use of Mr Baldwin’s very generous gift to us,” said Minor Memorial Library Director Valerie Annis.

Two complete multi-volume series in the collection — United States Army in World War II and Vietnam Studies — are available in only one other library in Connecticut. Numerous regimental histories, varying in format from yearbooks to spiral-bound books of cartoons, such as “Bless ‘em All, A Cartoon History of the First Marine Raiders,” to small paperbacks, highlight the collection.

“Textbook on Naval Aeronautics (1917)” and “Textbook on Military Aeronautics (1918)” are just two of the training manuals in the collection; among their illustrations are diagrams of early naval aircraft and specifications for dirigibles and kite balloons.

Mr Baldwin won the Pulitzer Prize in 1943 for his coverage of World War II in the Southwest Pacific. A graduate of the US Naval Academy, he wrote more than 30 books, many of which, such as Sea Fights and Ship Wrecks; True Tales of the Seven Seas, focus on the men, strategies and material of crucial naval battles.

Jeannine Green, the volunteer who devoted months to cataloging the collection, remarked on the breadth of the collection and also on its relevance, saying “I would open a volume published in 1918 and think I was looking at today’s front page of The New York Times.”

While World War II was Mr Baldwin’s primary interest, the collection also includes books about the Civil War and the Korean conflict along with personal accounts by soldiers, biographies and titles on military leadership and discipline.

The catalog for the collection is included on the library’s website, www.biblio.org/roxbury, and on the Bibliomation Global Database. For additional information call the library at 860-350-2181.