Finding Aid for the U.S. Naval Base No. 5 Brest, France Photographic Album Biomed.0406

Contributing Institution: UCLA Library Special Collections

Title: U.S. Naval Base No. 5 Brest, France photographic album

Source: Palinurus Antiquarian Books

Identifier/Call Number: Biomed.0406

Physical Description: 1 unknown (1 album)

Date (inclusive): circa 1917-1919

Language of Material: Materials are in English.

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Purchased from Palinurus, 8 February 2001.

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UCLA Catalog Record ID: 5677658 

The photographic album contains 309 photographs (302 pasted on buff paper bound in album, 7 mounted on loose fragments of black paper) which document the World War I service of an individual, presumably a nurse (groups of women are photographed aboard a Europe-bound vessel, and a portrait of a nurse near the end of the album is captioned "Thinking of home"), from the Atlantic crossing in 1917; arrival at Port Nazaire, Brittany; staff and conditions at Naval Base No. 5 in Brest; liberty parties in Queenstown, Ireland and Paris and Morgat (Crozon Peninsula, Brittany), France; and return to New York aboard the USS Henderson in 1918 or 1919. "Villa Mary Our Home" forms the frontispiece. Vessels photographed and identified in the U.S. to France crossing and convoys at sea include USS President Lincoln, USS St. Louis (C-20), Cristobel, USS Paul Jones (DD-10), and USS Noma (SP-131). Photographs in and around Brest include camp fortifications, hospital grounds, nurses, an ambulance wagon and train, soldiers, a prisoner of war, bombed countryside, and the 1917 Christmas celebration. Identified doctors include "Dr. Curl our C.O." (Holton C. Curl, Captain, U.S. Navy, Commander of Naval Base Hospital No. 5), Le Conte, Darby, Kerr, Hanson, and Garrison. Survivors of the American steamship Florence H., which exploded 17 April 1918, are shown.