Bentley Historical Library

Resources (42)

• Several collections relate to the North Russian (Polar Bear) Expedition—the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) in the Murmansk and Archangel regions in 1918–19. Unless otherwise indicated, individuals noted below as being with the AEF served in the 339th Infantry Regiment. Though not treated by the library as a single holding, these collections were collectively described for a NUCMC entry (NUCMC 65–609).

• Albert E. Geltz

  6 items. AEF. Miscellaneous historical documents.

• Alex Heath

  4 items. AEF. 1 map and 3 photos.

• Andrew D. White (1832-1918)

  Papers, 1857–1918, 8 microfilm reels plus 82 letters. President of Cornell University. Several letters from him to Edward Payson Evans, a teacher and journalist, while White was minister to Russia, December 1892-September 1894. Originals are in the Regional History Collection at Cornell University, under which entry there is a more complete description.

• Arthur Hendrick Vandenberg (1884-1951)

  Papers, 1927–51, 8 ft. Republican U.S. senator from Michigan, joined Democratic administration in bipartisan foreign policy. Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and delegate to the U.N. Conference in San Francisco in 1945 and to the Paris Peace Conference of 1946. Correspondence, diaries, scrapbooks, and speeches related to Soviet-American relations in the 1930s and the formation of U.S. policy toward the USSR at the end of World War II. The Private Papers of Senator Vandenberg, edited by Arthur H. Vandenberg, Jr. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1952) gives a good idea of the contents. Unpublished folder list, name index, speech index, and scrapbook index.

• B. F. Broaddus

  14 items. AEF. Photographs, field orders, newspaper clippings, and a Thanksgiving Day menu.

• Burke Aaron Hinsdale (1837-1900)

  Papers, ca. 2 ft. Professor of education. His 3 daughters traveled to the USSR in 1928. Papers include their observations on Russia. (NUCMC 65–318)

• Caleb Dwinell Randall (1831-1903)

  Papers, 1855–1902, over 325 items. Banker, state legislator, and educator. Chiefly correspondence. Attended prison congresses and traveled in Europe, including Russia, about which he comments. (NUCMC 65–501)

• Charles Brady Ryan (b. 1886)

  70 items and 3 vols. AEF. Diary for 1916, 1918–19; and correspondence, 1917–19, including letters home.

• Clarence G. Scheu

  2 vols. AEF. Diaries, July 1918-July 1919, covering his service in Company B on the Dvina front.

• E. D. Bruce

  5 items, 1962–64. AEF. Letter and songs relating to the expedition.

• Edward Flaherty

  35 items. AEF. Field diary of Company H, 1919; plus photos of Archangel and the AEF, taken by the American Red Cross.

• Edward Trombley

  4 items, 1919–20. AEF. Letters and diary from the North Russian expedition.

• Edwin L. Arkins

  AEF. Shorthand diary in North Russia, plus some clippings, 1 vol.

• Frank W. Douma (1893-1976)

  AEF, corporal. Typescript copy, 21 pp., of his diary for 1918–19.

• George Albers (b. 1891)

  11 items. AEF. Anonymous diary (possibly of Fred Kooyers of Company E) and miscellaneous papers, 1918–19, plus papers of Howard H. Pellegram Post (no. 3734) of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (1940–45).

• Gordon W. Smith

  1 vol. AEF, sergeant. Diary, 1919, with day-by-day accounts of Company D's activities, maps, company roster, and clippings.

• Harry Franck (1881-1962)

  Papers, 1910–39, 7 items and 10 vols. Author of travel books. Includes typescript of his "A Vagabond in Sovietland," published under the same title by Stokes, McClelland in 1935. It is the account of his trip to the USSR in the early 1930s.

• Henry Katz

  4 items. AEF. Military orders and resume of medical work in north Russia, describing treatment of sick and wounded (American military and Russian civilians) by U.S. medical personnel.

• Howard E. Merrill (fl. ca. 1917)

  Papers, 1917–24, ca. 250 items. YMCA volunteer in Russia during the Bolshevik Revolution. Correspondence, diary, 1920, and miscellanea. Letters are to relatives in the U.S. Also, playbills and newsletters published by Russian soldiers in German POW camps, and some writings of Donald A. Lowrie, who was in Russia with Merrill.

• Hugh D. McPhail

  36 items and 4 vols. AEF. Scrapbooks with clippings, etc.; orders, citations, casualty lists, field message book (in part photocopies).

• Hugo K. Salchow

  15 items. AEF. Partial transcript of an interview, 1971, in which he recounts his experiences with the Polar Bear expedition; miscellaneous documents he collected in 1919.

• James B. Sibley

  10 items. AEF. Diary for 7 November 1918–14 January 1919, plus various documents about the end of his service in the 339th.

• James Burrill Angell (1829-1916)

  Papers, 1845–1916, 13 ft. and 6 vols. Educator, editor, and diplomat. President of the University of Michigan, 1871–1909; minister to China, 1880–81, and to Turkey, 1897–98. 6 letters to Charles Kendall Adams (1835–1902), then a Michigan history professor and later president of Cornell University and the University of Wisconsin, and 6 letters to his son Alexis Angell, all 12 written 1880–81, nearly all mentioning Russia and/or the possibility of a Russo-Chinese conflict. Index to correspondents. (NUCMC 64–1413)

• James Kerr Pollock (1898-1968)

  Military government files, ca. 1947–49, ca..25 of 6 ft. Adviser to General Lucius Clay during the post-World War II Allied occupation of Germany. There are frequent references to dealings with the Russians in the administration of the occupation.

• Jay H. Bonnell

  AEF. Typescript copy of his reminiscences with account of his Russian experiences, and a photograph album of the expedition, 90 pp.

• Jesse Siddall Reeves (1872-1942)

  Papers, 1853–1942, 17 ft., 5 vols. Professor of political science and international law. Correspondence, reports, lecture notes, manuscript writings, etc. Some items concern the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. Reference to Baron S. H. Korff. (NUCMC 65–507)

• Joel Roscoe Moore (b. 1879)

  Papers, 1917–52, 17 items. AEF, U.S. Army captain. Correspondence, citations, and orders.

• John Boren

  23 items. AEF. Materials from 1919 relate to the expedition; papers from 1958–62 concern attempts to obtain the bodies of men killed and buried in Russia. Also, some postcard views of Archangel.

• John Sherman Crissman

  28 items. AEF. Diary describing living conditions, and letters from his family.

• John W. Bigelow (1896-1918)

  8 items. AEF. Letters, certificates of recognition, and obituary.

• Kenneth A. Skellenger

  7 items. AEF. Diary of his activities with Company A, a lengthy letter to his family, and a petition addressed to Bolshevik soldiers.

• Laurence Todd (1882-1957)

  Papers, 1932–52, 1 ft. Correspondent for TASS, the Soviet news agency, stationed in Washington, D.C. Correspondence for 1933–52 and diaries for 1934–36 reflect his journalistic career with TASS, 1932–52, and political or international affairs relating to the Soviet Union. Unpublished finding aid.

• Lee J. Ward letter: January 22, 1919

  1 folder. Soldier from Numa, Iowa, served in the Allied intervention in Russia, 1918-1920, the "Polar Bear Expedition." Collection includes letter written from Archangel to his wife describing cold weather, daily routine, and hopes of returning home. The letter, a photocopy, describes the weather in Archangel, his daily routine, and his hopes of going home. The original is owned by Roger L. Heiple, South Lyon, Mich. Finding aid available: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=bhlead&idno=umich-bhl-86721

• Margaret Wilder Menzi (b. 1898)

  Papers, 1911–40, ca. 250 items. Includes an account of her trip on the Trans-Siberian Railroad on the eve of World War I, 1914, and a travel journal describing her trip across the rest of the country that same year.

• Michael J. Macalla

  Letters and papers, 1918–56, ca. 200 items. AEF, officer in the Polar Bear Association. Includes material on the American committee sent to the USSR in 1929 to attempt to recover bodies of AEF members slain, and on the dedication of the Polar Bear Monument (Troy, Michigan).

• Otto Arthur Odjard

  8 items. AEF. 2 letters from General Edmund Ironside, British commander of Allied forces; list of British citations awarded to American and other Allied soldiers; other citations and decorations.

• Robert Gessner (b. 1907)

  Papers, 1931–32, 16 items. Professor and author. After a visit to the Soviet Union he wrote to Louis A. Strauss, 29 September 1932, about his trip and his views on the country.

• Rodger Sherman Clark

  Ca. 60 items. AEF, 310th Army Engineers. Miscellaneous documents, maps, and charts of the North Russian forces, 1918–19.

• Silver Parrish

  AEF. Photocopy of a diary, 57 pp., kept while in service with Company B on the Dvina River front, 14 July 1918–27 April 1919, with battlefield notes and details on Russian peasant life.

• Walter F. Dundon

  AEF, president of the Polar Bear Association. Diary and reminiscences concerning his efforts to recover bodies of expedition members slain and buried in Russia, 1929 and 1931.

• William H. Stoneman (b. 1904)

  Papers, 1928–74, 6 ft. Foreign correspondent for the Chicago Daily News. In Moscow in 1931–35. Letters and scrapbooks contain pertinent information, and there is a folder of notes on Russia, 1932–35. Other subjects covered: the end of World War II as seen from London and Paris, and the development of the 1956 Hungarian revolt. A photograph album relates to the Hungarian events as well. One of his correspondents was Charles Bohlen. Unpublished list of folder contents and partial name index.