Mapping Victory: WWII U.S. Service Unit Maps
By Marketing and Communications | 11-13-2024
The experiences of U.S. soldiers moving through European and Pacific World War II theaters are captured in colorful maps that are part of Cushing Memorial Library & Archives’ Mapping Victory display from Nov. 15 to March 7.
The maps chart battlefronts, but they also contain personal, real-time observations of American troops fighting in the war. Mundane activities, tragedies, and victories are all recorded in the maps that Texas A&M University Libraries have also digitized.
Some maps are straightforward renditions of troop movements, while several include collective memories through handwritten notes and illustrations.
"These are documents created by units that often tell the story of the unit's wartime journey, including their activation, training, deployment, combat and demobilization," said Anton duPlessis, military history curator.
Events depicted on the maps align with official military histories and records maintained by the U.S. military branches. This is how one can confirm the location of deployed troops, duPlessis said.
"Almost all of these maps were produced overseas during the war, rather than when the soldiers came back to the U.S.," duPlessis said. "Which makes the more colorful, quirky maps all the more interesting since they went to that sort of effort, given where they were and when."
The display’s maps highlight Cushing’s extensive military history collection. University Archives items from some of the 20,229 Aggies who served in World War II are also a prominent part of the display.
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Media Contact: Matthew Kennedy, matthew.kennedy@tamu.edu
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