World War 2, 1939-1949
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World War 2, 1939-1949 includes more than 4,000 federal, state, and local government publications. Among the variety of materials included are government reports, first aid manuals, informational pamphlets, and recruitment materials that demonstrate the efforts of government, military personnel, health professionals, and scientists, among others, on the home front and overseas during and immediately following the Second World War.
Highlights include:
- • publications on the challenges introduced by the new weaponry of chemical warfare, including an illustrated field manual entitled Defense against chemical attack, released by the U.S. Army in 1940;
- • a 1945 self-care guide entitled Keep well! Here's How published by the War Shipping Administration that warns of the dangers of malaria, dysentery, and venereal disease;
- • recruitment brochures, reports, and other materials that display the changing role and status of the military nurse during and after the war;
- • Final report of the Committee on Medical and Hospital Services of the Armed Forces (1949), and other documents originally classified as "Restricted" that now bear "Unclassified" stamps, many of which were signed by Dr. Frank B. Rogers, director of the Library from 1949 until 1963.