William W. Davis Papers

The collection contains 111 letters from Major William W. Davis of the United States Army Medical Corps Tenth Evacuation Hospital to his wife, Mary Davis of Louisville, Kentucky, while he was stationed in New Guinea from 29 January 1943 through 19 September 1943. In October 1943 he was transferred as a patient to the 363rd Station Hospital and then to the Forty-Second General Hospital in Australia to recover from typhoid fever from January through March 1944. He writes to his wife Mary about his friends, the dependency of the postal service, his sickness, wanting to come home, photography, entertainment, and interacting with aborigines. In one letter he states that he overheard something in the ward that he thought was about him. He writes, "While having lunch a moment ago I was interested to hear some ward conversation I wasn't supposed to hear. The partitions are quite thin and much open space. Down the hall one of the boys said, 'It doesn't look like a doctor ought to get typhoid he ought to know better.' Think that applied to me - I am quite sure it did."