Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Palmerlee, Charles S.
- Abstract:
- Charles Palmerlee was a high school teacher at the Tule Lake War Relocation Authority center in Newell, California, during World War II. This collection contains correspondence, booklets, news clippings, ephemera, and typescript. It also contains images, moving images, a color photograph, an album, and artifacts. The collection documents Palmerlee's life at Tule Lake and includes a personal account of his experiences written later in his life.
- Extent:
- 0.5 linear feet of textual material, 6 monographs, 2 film reels, and 14 artifacts
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Charles Palmerlee papers. 96.47, Japanese American National Museum. Los Angeles, CA.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
This collection documents Palmerlee's life at Tule Lake. It consists of correspondence, booklets, news clippings, ephemera, an assortment of typescript, one color photograph, an album of photographs, and two movies of Tule Lake filmed by Palmerlee. It also contains artifacts.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Charles Seward Palmerlee was born February 27, 1919, in Oregon. Shortly after he was born, his family moved to North Sacramento, California, where they lived until moving to Rio Linda, California, in 1931. After high school, Palmerlee attended Sacramento Junior College, eventually matriculating at the University of California, Berkeley and earning a Bachelor of Arts in 1942. Palmerlee continued his enrollment in university with the intention of earning his General Secondary Teaching Credential, but after hearing of opportunities to teach for the War Relocation Authority, applied and was accepted to a teaching position at Tule Lake's Tri-State High School. From February to November 1943, Palmerlee was a mathematics teacher at Tri-State. He was also an advisor to the senior class from February until their high school culmination in July.
Tri-State High School opened in September 1942. During its first year, school buildings consisted of 20 barracks in which 2,400 students in grades 7 through 12 attended classes. The school faculty was composed of both interned Japanese Americans and other Americans, like Palmerlee, who taught and lived at Tule Lake. During his time at Tule Lake, Palmerlee recorded still and moving images of life at the camp using a Brownie camera and an 8mm Bell and Howard Sportster.
After leaving Tule Lake, Palmerlee attended the Pacific School of Religion, where he enrolled in the Post-War Rehabilitation School and received training for post war rehabilitation work. Charles Palmerlee died on April 29, 1990, in Alameda, California.
- Acquisition information:
- Gift of Mrs. Joy Palmerlee Apra.
- Arrangement:
-
The collection is divided into four series by type of material: artifacts, monographs, moving images, and documents.
- Physical location:
- Japanese American National Museum 100 North Central Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90012
- Rules or conventions:
- Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
By appointment only. Please contact the Collections Management and Access Unit (collections@janm.org). Advanced notice is required.
- Terms of access:
-
All requests for permission to publish, reproduce, or quote from materials in this collection must be submitted to the Collections Management and Access Unit at the Japanese American National Museum (collections@janm.org).
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Charles Palmerlee papers. 96.47, Japanese American National Museum. Los Angeles, CA.
- Location of this collection:
-
Collections Management & Access Unit100 North Central AvenueLos Angeles, CA 90012, US
- Contact:
- 213-625-0414