Jeanette Goldberg Women's Army Corps (WAC) papers
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Abstract
Diary, papers, photographs, and ephemera documenting the military career of Sergeant Jeanette (Goldberg) Ellman (1920–2000), who served in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) and its successor, the Women's Army Corps (WAC), the women's branch of the United States Army, during World War II.
Biographical note
Jeanette (Goldberg) Ellman was born in Philadelphia on August 11, 1920 to Israel and Dora (Maltz) Goldberg. From 1938 through late 1942 she managed the office of Wm. Miller, a Philadelphia manufacturer of upholstered furniture, slip covers, and draperies.
Jeanette enlisted in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) at Philadelphia on November 11, 1942. The WAAC, an auxiliary unit, was created on May 15 of that year to allow women to serve in the U.S. Army. Jeanette reported for active duty on December 15 to the 2nd WAAC Training Center, Daytona Beach, Florida. There she became a junior leader in the Fourth Training Regiment, 22nd Company, and was promoted to leader on May 14, 1943. On May 18 Jeanette's regiment was inactivated at Daytona Beach and she was transferred to Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn, New York, where she was promoted to sergeant. She served in the Inspection and Processing Branch beginning in June 1943, eventually becoming its chief clerk. On July 1, 1943, the WAAC was converted to active duty status as the Women's Army Corps (WAC). Jeanette Goldberg continued to serve until December 9, 1945, when she was separated from the military at Fort Dix, New Jersey. She was the recipient of the Good Conduct Medal.
In August 1945, at the USO in Temple Emanu-El, in Manhattan, Jeanette met her future husband, Sidney Ellman (1913–2002), who was serving in the U.S. Navy. They married in Philadelphia in 1949, and had two children, Michael and Joyce. Jeanette attended Temple University's School of Oral Hygiene (Class of 1947), and later worked for the New York City Board of Health (1966–1975). She died in the Bronx on February 11, 2000.
Arrangement
The collection is organized alphabetically in categories devised by the processing archivist. Material within each category is filed chronologically.
Scope and Contents
Of chief interest is Jeanette Goldberg's diary, which she kept between January 1, 1943 and September 14, 1944, sometimes filling in from memory what happened on a particular date. The diary followed her from the 2nd WAAC Training Center in Daytona Beach, Florida, to Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn, New York, and documents her military and social activities. Supplementing the diary are newspaper clippings—some generally about the WAAC/WAC and others specifically mentioning Goldberg—photographs, and ephemera. In the latter category, the publications "Women May Now Serve With the U.S. Army in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps" (1942), "Women's Army Auxiliary Corps Regulations" (1942) [both in Box 1, Folder 5], "73 Questions and Answers About the WAAC" (1943) [Box 1, Folder 6], and "Women's Army Corps Song Book" (1944) [Box 1, Folder 7], each help to describe the experience of serving in the WAC, as does the memorandum of rules and regulations for those in training at Daytona Beach [Box 1, Folder 5. Of note among the photographs is one showing a typical WAC regulation kit—uniforms, shoes, headgear, toiletries, etc.—neatly organized for packing on a bunk [Box 1, Folder 12].
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Access Restrictions
This collection may be stored offsite. To arrange to consult it, please go to www.nyhistory.org/library/visit.
RESTRICTED: The items in folders 13 and 14 may not be used. See the inventory to this finding aid for details.
Use Restrictions
Application to use images from this collection for publication should be made in writing to: Department of Rights and Reproductions, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5194, rightsandrepro@nyhistory.org.
Preferred Citation
This collection should be cited as: "Jeanette Goldberg Women's Army Corps (WAC) Papers, MS 3240, New-York Historical Society."
Location of Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Joyce Ellman, daughter of Jeanette (Goldberg) Ellman, 2022.
About this Guide
Processing Information
Archivist Joseph Ditta arranged and described this collection in March 2024.
Repository
View Inventory
Diary, 1943-1944, inclusive
Scope and Contents
"A Page a Day" perpetual diary. The entries cover January 1 - July 25, 1943, and June 21 - September 14, 1944.
Diary transcription, undated, inclusive
Scope and Contents
Typed "Transcription of Diary of Jeanette Goldberg," prepared and annotated by her daughter, Joyce Ellman. 53 pages.
Newspaper clippings, 1943-1944, inclusive
Scope and Contents
• "Carefully Prepared Plan Trains WAACs for Duty," Philadelphia Inquirer, March 8, 1943
• "The Women's Army Passes in Review," Philadelphia Inquirer, April 4, 1943
• "Gas Drill," Philadelphia Inquirer, April 20, 1943
• "President Reviewing WAACS on His War Camp Tour," Philadelphia Inquirer, April 21, 1943
• "WAC's Here Sworn Into Army" and "WACs Hold Company Dinner," Fort Hamilton Post, Aug. [9?], 1943
• "Your TC [Transportation Corps] Over One Year Old," Fort Hamilton Post, Sep. [?], 1943
• "Showmanship Gives Lift to Orientation," YANK: The Army Weekly, July 21, 1944. [Includes photographs of WACs at Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn, Jeanette Goldberg among them.]
• "Sgt. Pete Paris," YANK: The Army Weekly, Aug. 25, 1944
• "Off-Duty Appeal Added to Wac Winter Wardrobe," Philadelphia Inquirer, Sep. 3, 1944
• [Illustrated timeline of war highlights, July-August 1944], Philadelphia Inquirer, Dec. 31, 1944
Newspaper clippings, 1945, inclusive
Scope and Contents
• "1300 Boys are Back for Furlough Fun," [New York] Daily News, Jan. 14, 1945
• "Nazi Killed Rose, Trapped, Giving Up," New York Times, April 4, 1945
• "Surrender in Italy! 1st Photos," [New York] Daily Mirror, May 3, 1945
• "Timetable of Hitler's Ride on the Horror-Go-Round," [New York] Daily News, May 8, 1945
• "Happiness: Unconfined and . . . Subdued, Too," [New York] Daily Mirror, May 8, 1945
• "Germany's Act of Military Surrender," New York Times, May 9, 1945
• [Coverage of Soviet victory over Nazi Germany], New York Times, May 9, 1945
• "Atrocities: Capture of the German Concentration Camps Piles Up Evidence of Barbarism That Reaches the Low Point of Human Degradation," Life, May 1945
• "District [WACs] and 17 Others Missing in African Flight," Washington, D.C. Times-Herald, June 7, 1945
• "3 Isolated in Jungle Valley Await Aid," [New York] Daily News, June 9, 1945
• "Soldiers Don't Travel on Their Stomachs," unidentified newspaper, July 6, 1945. [Includes photograph of Sgt. Jeanette Goldberg.]
• "13th Armored Sailing for Home and the Pacific," [New York] Daily News, July 20, 1945. [Includes photograph of Sergeant Jeanette Goldberg embracing her brother, Sergeant Robert Goldberg.]
• "U.S. Fliers Drop Mig[hty] Atomic Bomb on Japan; Shock Power Exce[ed]s 20,000 Tons of TNT," Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, Aug. 6, 1945
• "Jews in U.S. Zone of Reich Find Conditions Improving—Status in Other Countries Surveyed," New York Times, Aug. 26, 1945
• "He's Mild and Meek—Except With Krauts!," [YANK: The Army Weekly?], [1945]. [Profile of Walter D. Ehlers (1921–2014), who would receive the Medal of Honor for his actions during World War II.]
Orders, correspondence, ephemera, etc., 1942 June - December, inclusive
Scope and Contents
Material dated June 2 - December 26, 1942, including "Tentative WAAC Drill Regulations," a memorandum of base rules and regulations for the 2nd WAAC Training Center, Daytona Beach, and the pamphlets "Day by Day in Daytona Beach, Florida," "Daytona Beach Extends a Hearty Welcome to the W.A.A.C.," "Women May Now Serve With the U.S. Army in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps," and "Women's Army Auxiliary Corps Regulations."
Orders, correspondence, ephemera, etc., 1943 February - October, inclusive
Scope and Contents
Material dated February 5 - October 1, 1943, including an issue of "Waactivities" (May 7, 1943), a magazine for and by the personnel of the 2nd WAAC Training Center, Daytona Beach, Florida, and the pamphlets "WAAC Song-Book," "Boston Guide Right" (issued by the USO Greater Boston Soldiers & Sailors Committee)," "73 Questions and Answers About the WAAC," and a Special Service Bulletin of general information for WAACs at Fort Devens, Massachusetts.
Orders, correspondence, ephemera, etc., 1944 March - September, inclusive
Scope and Contents
Material dated March 23 - September 15, 1944, including the books "Women's Army Corps Song Book" and Captain Stockbridge H. Barker's "So You're Going Overseas!"
Orders, correspondence, ephemera, etc., 1945 January - December, inclusive
Scope and Contents
Material dated January 17 - December 10, 1945, including a printed program for the musical production "3 Day Pass!" at Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn, New York. The show, a project of the Special Services Division, was tried out at Fort Hamilton before it was produced at military installations in the U.S. and overseas.
Orders, correspondence, ephemera, etc., undated, inclusive
Scope and Contents
Includes the pamphlet "What to Do in New York. A complete guide for visiting Servicemen and Women," and an advertising flier reading "Danger! Women at Work. Be a 'Port' WAC in the Transportation Corps."
Photographs (1 of 3 folders), [1942-1945], inclusive
Scope and Contents
Twenty-one images in four sleeves, from an enveloped marked "Daytona Beach WAAC Photos Parading on the beach & Cantonment." Thirteen images are full or partial postcards with the captions
• "Informal discussion groups add interest to life in the WAAC"
• "The WAAC's own band parades at a training center"
• "A Company of the WAAC drilling at Daytona Beach, Florida"
• "Physical training keeps WAACs fit and alert"
• "At Ease on Beach"
• "WAACs on parade"
• "Retreat"
• "Drilling on Street"
• "Reporting at the Clarendon Hotel"
• "Cantonment"
• "Bugle Call"
• "Fall out, Tent City"
• "Repairing army truck
Photographs (2 of 3 folders), [1942-1945], inclusive
Scope and Contents
Thirty-three images in eight sleeves, from an envelope marked "Miscellaneous WAAC photos." Most show WAACs drilling, but some are more informal shots, like one of Goldberg and fellow service members at the U.S.O. Club of the Jewish Welfare Board, 9312 4th Avenue, Brooklyn, New York.
Photographs (3 of 3 folders), [1942-1945], inclusive
Scope and Contents
Two 8x10-inch photographs by the U.S. Army Signal Corps. One shows a female service member's neatly organized kit (uniforms, shoes, headgear, toiletries, etc.) displayed on her bunk. The other shows male service members in an office setting.
"Voice-O-Graph" recording discs (4), [circa 1941-1945], inclusive
Scope and Contents
From an envelope marked "Recordings of WWII soldiers before they went overseas." Coin-operated Voice-O-Graph booths, which were once common fixtures of amusement parks and tourist attractions, allowed the general public to create recordings on six-inch, lacquer-coated discs that held about a minute of sound. The label on one disc is torn and partly missing, but the others read "Duke's Solo," "Hey Wait For Me," and "Oh Trudy I could shoot you."
RESTRICTED
The New-York Historical Society lacks the technology necessary to hear these recordings.
WAAC banner, [1942-1943], inclusive
Scope and Contents
Small banner (approximately 12 x 9 inches) featuring a profile bust of Pallas Athene, official insignia of the U.S. Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, and the text "SERVING / IN THE / WAAC / U.S. ARMY." Printed in blue and red on a light (originally white?) satin (?) background, with a dowel for hanging at the top and gold tassels along the bottom.
RESTRICTED
This item is in poor condition and may not be handled.