The Robert M. Briggs Papers (1943-2004) document Brigg's military duty during the Second World War and his paintings and personal writings. Highlights include Briggs' scrapbook of photographs, newspaper clippings, sketches, and watercolors of fellow servicemen, local Okinawans, landscapes, and battleships during World War II.  Briggs drew many of the sketches rapidly while under enemy fire and painted them in later.  Filed alphabetically, the collection consists of newspaper clippings, photographs, sketches, watercolors, poems, essays about WWII and the Rocky Mountains, and an interview with Kathy Neal, Special Collections Librarian, discussing his experiences during WWII.  The majority of materials date from 1943-1945.

Robert M. Briggs was born and raised in Colorado. While in high school he worked as a ranger for the Rocky Mountain National Park. At 19, Briggs joined the military and worked as a sharpshooter and communications sergeant during the Second World War. He was stationed primarily in the Pacific Theatre, where he made sketches and watercolors of other servicemen, battleships, local people, and landscapes. Many of his sketches were displayed in the mess hall and at the Officer's Club. Briggs also painted insignias on military planes, including the insignia on Bockscar, the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki.

0.38 Linear Feet

The copyright interests in some of these materials have been transferred to or belong to San Diego State University. The nature of historical archival and manuscript collections means that copyright status may be difficult or even impossible to determine. Copyright resides with the creators of materials contained in the collection or their heirs. Requests for permission to publish must be submitted to the Head of Special Collections, San Diego State University, Library and Information Access. When granted, permission is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical item and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder(s), which must also be obtained in order to publish.  Materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials.

This collection is open for research.