Letter from Wilbur A. Sawyer to Margaret Sawyer
- Title:
- Letter from Wilbur A. Sawyer to Margaret Sawyer
- Creator:
- Sawyer, Wilbur A.
- Recipient:
- Sawyer, Margaret
- Date:
- 9 October 1918
- Description:
- After the U.S. entered World War I, Dr. Sawyer accepted a commission as a major in the Medical Reserve Corps in December 1917. In January 1918, he moved to Washington DC to take up his duties in the Venereal Disease Section of the Surgeon General's Office, leaving his family behind in California. In June, after returning from a few days of vacation with his family in Michigan, he received orders to go to Newport News, Virginia, to serve as Supervisor of Non-Military Activities. In this post he was the military liaison with local authorities concerned with keeping order in a town full of new army recruits. Sawyer's military service was his first extended separation from his wife and children (though not his last); they would not move to Washington until late September. His affectionate letters show that he missed them greatly, but also provide extensive commentary on life in the Washington area during the war, and on various activities of military and civilian public health organizations. Letters from October mention the effects of the influenza pandemic that killed millions in 1918.
- Location:
- Box: 1. Folder: 19
- Rights:
- Public Domain
- Genre:
- Letters (correspondence)
- Subject:
- Military Medicine and Influenza, Human
- Format:
- Text
- Extent:
- 2 pages
- Language:
- English
- Legacy ID:
- LWBBJT
- NLM ID:
- 101584931X142
- Profiles Collection:
- The Wilbur A. Sawyer Papers
- Shareable Link:
- https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/101584931X142
- Story Section:
- Early Career in California and World War I, 1908-1919