Finding Aid for the Norman J. Hall Post First World War correspondence 2017.415.w.r

Physical Description: 0.08 Linear feet(1 folder)

Language of Material: English.

This series contains one original correspondence and three photocopied correspondence, although one of these photocopied correspondence is a copy of the original correspondence. The original correspondence, dated March 15, 1919, Hall writes to his mother. He writes that he is working in the in the Inspector General's Department, Second Army in Toul, France. He writes, "My work consists of reporting inspections, investigations and claims, which is very interesting work but not always pleasant. These investigations are usually made up of an inspector, reporter, and, if it is a French investigation, an interpretor. We travel by car – usually a Cadillac." He discusses some details of his work, writing, "Last week I considered myself very fortunate in missing two days' trip as it was out about 75 kilometers (approximately 47 miles) in what used to be no man's land. The investigation entailed the digging out of fourteen soldiers and one officer for the purpose of examining them and trying to determine how they met their death. These men had been captured and put to death by the Germans, so it was rumored by the French people in that vicinity, by machine guns. They were buried about six months ago so you can imagine what a scene it was. Of course, I do not miss all of these so-called good trips." Hall is very descriptive when he illustrates the places he has been, often becoming reminiscent of a history book in his background descriptions. For instance, Hall describes the town of Toul, giving the town's history, talking about its high stone walls but takes time discussing the history of a cathedral in the town, saying it dates back to the seventh century and shows his fascination which the fact that the cathedral took over 400 years to complete. He comments, "During the war they rang the cathedral bell when enemy airplanes were over the town in order to warn the people. There were a number of buildings blown to pieces by the enemy planes during the war." The next letter in this series in a photocopy of this original letter but on the back of this letter is a photocopy of a postcard and a hard to discern black and white photo of a man and his dog. There in a description below these two items that reads, "Norman hunted quail, rabbit, deer, squirrel, and that was one reason he bought lou in the Bethel area of Front Royal. He owned bird dogs and brought his city friends down to stay at the house on Hall Road and hunt and drink. Uncle Noah sent him a postcard asking food for the birds." This description is crossed out and a note from the donor is below that says, "We had a Hall reunion in 2003, and everyone contributed items to the booklet from which I pulled this." The next letter is dated March 31, 1919 and is also addressed to Hall's mother. In this letter, Hall describes a trip he went on from Toul to Sable, with stops in Paris and La Mans that he had to travel for an investigation he had to conduct. He details every aspect of the trip, even mentioning the sleeping arrangements on one stop. "The barracks where we slept were quite large, having about 250 bunks in them. Our beds consisted of 3 blankets, 3 sheets and a mattress (straw sack). Believe the unusual number of sheets were to be used to keep the cooties off. An extra-ordinary good place to sleep. The bunks were built of wooden slats. Most of the bunks were occupied, about six being occupied by Negros. These barracks were for the accommodation of transient men only, mostly men on leave. Just before retiring I heard a number of the men talking about being broke. None of the bunks had pillows, and as I had about 1500 francs on my person, I decided to make a pillow out of my overcoat and put my francs in it." He also describes where he ate and the food he had at each facility. Hall says he was able to visit Napoleon's tomb but he was the most impressed with his detour at the Palace of Versailles, "We had a guide to take us through. Two hours were spent in looking at the most wonderful paintings, etc., that I have ever seen. It took 24 years to build this palace; there were as many as 36,00 men and 6000 horses working on this palace at one time during its erection. I was in the room where the next Peace will be signed." The last letter in this series is dated April 2, 1919. The letter does not contain the year but the year was provided by the donor. This letter was written to Hall's father and it talks in immense detail about the farmers and farming practices of France. Hall comments, "Part of this knowledge I gained from personal observation and the other is simply heresay and I could not swear as to its authenticity." Hall then details what the farmers are plowing for, their means of plowing, what animals they use, what plows and equipment they use, how their land looks, etc. Hall adds, "France has about 8,000,000 land-owners, one fourth of the holdings being under fifteen acres. Their chief productions are cereals, winces, potatoes, and garden produce. Cereals cover more than a quarter of their total acreage; wheat covers thirteen percentum and is grown in every Department; the yearly wheat crop being about 330million bushels. Land value is approximately $135 per acre. Their wheat production is about 18 bushels per acre. France furnishes about one-third of the world-supply of wine. It produces in the open air all the ordinary species of fruit which its inhabitant consume, apart from bananas and pine-apples." Hall then writes about France and the French people, "The narrow winding streets in the Cities of France make it very hard to find your way through them. Their Cities have grown 'naturally,' house after house, an irregular path between two strings of houses slowly become a street. Of course where a city is built up over night like some of ours in the States, it is easy to design streets and then build houses along them" adding that most of the French are Roman Catholic and that Sunday, "it is a day of freedom to such an extent that a man is free to work or drink on that day if he likes."

Physical Description: 0.08 Linear feet(1 folder)

Language of Material: English.

This series contains four items of ephemera, one original program, one original menu, one photocopied program, and one photocopied menu. Both programs have an illustration of the ship the S.S. Rotterdam, Holland-America Line and feature the musical entertainment that was played on the ship. The photocopied program has a handwritten note from Hall with the inscription, "Returned from oversees on this ship – NJH." The original menu has a recreation of the painting Presentation in the Temple by Rembrandt with a small version of Rembrandt's painting 'Tronie' of a Man with a Feathered Beret in between the name Rembrandt. This menu seems to be in French. The photocopied menu does not have any artwork on the front but has an illustration of a dead rabbit and bird hanging by their feet on a wreath on the left corner of the menu. Both menus are dated in June of 1919.