Benjamin S. Galland collection

The Benjamin S. Galland Collection is organized into four categories: DRAFTS OF GALLAND’S LETTERS, LETTERS TO GALLAND, NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS, and ITEMS SENT TO GALLAND.

The DRAFTS OF GALLANDS LETTERS are early copies of a law school newsletter that Professor Galland composed and sent to former students and friends involved in governmental or military activities during WWII (1942-1945). They have been organized chronologically and their content is briefly noted in the guide. These newsletters provide information about events and societal changes within the country, specifically at CU, during the war. Furthermore, they set the background for the reply letters to Galland.

The majority of the collection consists of LETTERS TO GALLAND. These letters are the replies sent back to Galland. It is important to note that Cicely Sherwood, the law school librarian, often included personal notes within Galland’s newsletters. Consequently, many of the reply letters are addressed to “Ben” and “Cis.” The letters are organized alphabetically by last name and then chronologically by date. A few of the letters are written by the wives or mothers of Galland’s students on their husband or son’s behalf. In this case, the letter is listed in the guide under the name of Galland’s student, followed by a note including the name/relationship of the actual author, which was done to stress the correspondent’s connection with Galland. If both husband and wife appear to have been well acquainted with Galland, their names are listed separately with a note that they were married.

The dates of the letters are listed after the names in the guide. Often the only date that could be found was the postmark, noted by a (pm) before the date. After the date, the type of correspondence is noted by letter, V-mail, etc. Where it could easily be deciphered, the origin of the letter is given. In many cases, this was difficult because the letters are simply stamped “Navy” etc. to protect the location of troops during the war.

Many of these letters discuss key issues of that time period such as: men’s attitudes toward the growing number of coeds in the law school, racism, prisoners of war, women in the armed forces, the war trails etc. The content of a few of the letters has been noted in the guide, but they may not be the only letters in the collection that deal with the listed issue. Also a small number of the authors were graduates of the US Navy Japanese Language School which was located at CU from 1942 to 1945. Because their work relates to several other significant collections in the archives, their involvement has been noted in the guide by writing (JLS graduate) beside their names. Where possible, cross references are provided between folders or persons when they deal with the same individual or event. As per archival practice, the envelopes were not kept. But photo copies of the envelopes can be found at the back of their respective folders.

NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS and ITEMS SENT TO GALLAND include two newspaper clippings, a “welcome home book,” and a unit history/year book. For the newspapers, date, publication and (where determinable) sender have been noted in the guide. For the items, the title and sender are given in the guide. The Welcome Home Album was signed by many of the returning veterans. Along with their names, their rank, and duty stations are listed. Where the sender is known, there is a cross reference to their letter folder in the guide.