Carl Tryon Letter Archive from Camp Devins.
1918 · North Yarmouth, Maine:
by [Camp Devins].
Collection of almost 40 letters, mostly from North Yarmouth, Maine. Envelopes and stamps on most, but a few extra pages. A couple of postcards are included. Some creasing to the envelopes. Normal browning and aging, legibility varies; otherwise about very good. Pretty much ell the letters are to Carl R. Tryon, but some are also for brother George, who were stationed at Camp Devins in 1918. Most of the letters come from North Yarmouth, Maine, and are about ordinary day to day activities. Although one friend tells Carl to keep brother George away from the girls. Camp Devins was extremely hard hit by the Spanish flu, and even though his family seemed to keep the tone of the letters light, in a letter dated September 25, 1818 they sent Carl and George sulphur pills and told him, "if you are afraid you will get it you are more likely to get it." In a low-key letter dated October 14, 1918, they include a press clipping about 100,000 "grip cases reported in the camps. Now the archive doesn't provide a lot of info on the flu, perhaps because many of the letters were written before the outbreak. Still provides an interesting view of life at the time of WWI. (Inventory #: 106625)