U.S. Marine Corps

U.S. Marine Corps World War I poster. Image courtesty of University of Minnesota Libraries

The United States Marine Corps was established on this day in 1775 during the Revolutionary War. Captain Samuel Nichols established the Continental Marines, the root of the modern Marine Corps, to serve as the muscle of the Continental Navy. It did not become the United States Marine Corps until 1798 when Congress created in preparation for conflict with post-revolutionary France.

Boys Take Oath Into the Marine Corps. Image courtesy of Unitah County Library.

Since their charged debut the Marine Corps have served in every American foreign armed conflict. Opening History has posters and photos relevant to the Marine Corps in World Wars I and II, along with other military history resources. The two images are from University of Minnesota Libraries and the Unitah County Library.

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First IMLS DCC/Opening History digital collection on Flickr

We are happy to announce that IMLS DCC has joined Flickr! Our first set of photographs — from Flora (IL) Public Library’s Charles Overstreet Collection — has been uploaded to the photosharing portal as part of the Flickr Feasibility Study (pdf), an IMLS DCC initiative that began this summer with the goal of increasing the availability and exposure of the rare, historical photos in our collections. We will continue with regular uploads of photographs from a variety of collections, so keep checking our photostream; we welcome tags and comments.

The photograph below, included in our initial Flickr upload set, courtesy of the Charles Overstreet Collection, shows soldiers from the U.S. Army’s 252nd Field Artillery Battalion stationed in Marseille, France, in 1945, exploring the city.

Marseille, France

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World War II Japanese American internment started on February 19, 1942

Fifteen digital collections in Opening History aggregation contain documents, photographs, paintings, letters, scrapbooks, newspapers and other materials that cover Japanese American experiences during 1942-1945 in relocation camps in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.

Praying for Safety, oil painting on canvas by Henry Sugimoto, ca. 1942

Praying for Safety, oil painting on canvas by Henry Sugimoto, ca. 1942.
Courtesy of MOAC: Museums and the Online Archive of California, Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.), Henry Sugimoto Collection 1928-1990
More information from Opening History.

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