{"id":656,"date":"2016-06-30T14:05:07","date_gmt":"2016-06-30T14:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.lib.luc.edu\/wla\/?p=656"},"modified":"2026-01-12T21:33:59","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T21:33:59","slug":"found-in-the-archives-a-message-from-your-man-in-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/wla\/2016\/06\/30\/found-in-the-archives-a-message-from-your-man-in-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Found in the Archives: A Message From Your Man in Service"},"content":{"rendered":"

This summer, I am working on the Women and Labor project, a new collaborative project in which I\u2019m using the Mollie Lieber West Papers<\/a> to create an online exhibit about the life of Mollie and the contributions of women in the labor movement. While I research the history of labor unions, women in the workforce, and Chicago in the 20th century, I am also learning more and more about Mollie West and finding so many cool things in her collection.<\/p>\n

Along with Mollie\u2019s many amazing accomplishments in the labor movement and endless stories of her bravery and dedication to social justice, her life included a beautiful love story that is told through letters, objects, and other materials in the collection.<\/p>\n

\"Mollie<\/a>

Mollie and Carl Lieber met while working for a newspaper and were married in 1940. Carl volunteered to join the Army in 1943.<\/p><\/div>\n

Among Mollie\u2019s papers, there is a small vinyl record. The label has an old Pepsi-Cola logo on it and says, \u201cThis is a recorded message from your man in service.\u201d This 78 RPM record holds a sweet audio message from Carl Lieber, Mollie\u2019s first husband, sent to her while he was serving in the Army.<\/p>\n

During World War II, Americans joined together to help each other and the servicemen fighting overseas, including companies like Pepsi. From my internet research I learned that Pepsi ran canteens in New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. that provided meals, showers, and other services to military men and women. They also set up recording booths in these canteens and sent a traveling recording booth to other military camps where millions of soldiers were able to create these wonderful audio letters to send to their loved ones. Online, I\u2019ve found people talking about records they\u2019ve found that were recorded in Louisiana, California, and Mississippi.<\/p>\n

(Note: This blog post is not an endorsement for Pepsi. While this service they provided likely brought joy to many, companies also benefited from creating a patriotic image and connecting their products to the idea of victory in the war.)<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The envelope in which the vinyl record was mailed.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"These<\/a>

These records were sent from bases and training camps in the United States while soldiers waited to be sent to the war.<\/p><\/div>\n

Thanks to a grant from Loyola University Chicago’s Center for Textual Studies and Digital Humanities, we were able to have this record and the other audiovisual materials in Mollie\u2019s collection digitized. This gave us the opportunity to hear Carl\u2019s voice and his message for the first time!<\/p>\n

We also made another discovery with this digitization. A second record, with a label in Italian, turned out to not contain Italian music as we had expected. This record also held a recorded message from Carl that he had made while on leave for a day in Rome! The touching audio messages on both records reveal a lot about the couple\u2019s relationship and the complex experiences of the war.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>

This mysterious Italian record turned out to hold another audio letter from Carl. It was able to be digitally preserved despite being very warped from age.<\/p><\/div>\n

Carl\u2019s messages and the others I listened to online contain words of encouragement to loved ones not to worry and descriptions of the good things about life in the training camps.<\/p>\n

Here is the audio from the first record that Carl sent while in Washington, D.C. I did my best to transcribe Carl\u2019s message, and you can find the transcript below!<\/p>\n\nhttp:\/\/blogs.lib.luc.edu\/wla\/files\/2016\/06\/6-3_Mollie-West-Papers_78_002.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

“Hello, honey. I thought this would be a very nice way to bring us closer together on my birthday. Although we\u2019re many miles apart, I want you to know that I feel that you are as near and dear to me as you have always been. I\u2019ve never been much at making speeches of this kind, but I\u2019ll try as hard as I can to convey my love to you. I\u2019m making this record in Washington, D.C. I got here on a 12 hour pass. I wrote you a letter about it all. We\u2019ve been married a little over 4 years now and I know you must be going through a pretty trying experience, with your condition and things as they are. But I want you to know that you\u2019ve gotta keep up your morale, and it\u2019s up to us in the armed forces to keep up the civilian morale. That\u2019s why I felt I should make this record and give you a chance to hear my voice so you can celebrate my birthday, even though I\u2019m not there with you to celebrate it together. I love you very much and feel that you should be with me, but I\u2019m sure that as soon as we\u2019re victorious in the war, we can be together and have a fine time together and do all the things we planned to do. Well, I\u2019m getting \u2026my own monotone, so don\u2019t worry about it. I\u2019m not going to sing a song for you, but I want to say now as I close that I love you very much and want you to keep healthy and keep well and do everything possible in order to see that you have a nice life in the future, and that means take care of that baby that\u2019s comin\u2019 along. So long, honey. I love you.”<\/em><\/p>\n

The Women and Labor digital exhibit will feature the audio from both of these records, as well as more documents, photographs, videos, and artifacts that tell Mollie\u2019s incredible story and the story of women in the labor movement. Follow the Women and Leadership Archives on Facebook<\/a> to learn more and don\u2019t miss the launch of the exhibit this August!<\/p>\n

\n

Caroline is a Graduate Assistant at the WLA and has just completed her Master\u2019s in Public History at Loyola University Chicago. She spends her spare time exploring Chicago, interpreting dreams, and watching cheesy movies with her husband.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Loyola University Chicago’s Women and Leadership Archives Blog is designed to provide a positive environment for the Loyola community to discuss important issues and ideas. Differences of opinion are encouraged. We invite comments in response to posts and ask that you write in a civil and respectful manner. All comments will be screened for tone and content and must include the first and last name of the author and a valid email address. The appearance of comments on the blog does not imply the University’s endorsement or acceptance of views expressed.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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This summer, I am working on the Women and Labor project, a new collaborative project in which I\u2019m using the Mollie Lieber West Papers to create an online exhibit about the life of Mollie and the contributions of women in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":658,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9908,9983],"tags":[3,9955,9983,9982,9945],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/wla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/wla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/wla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/wla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/wla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/wla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2704,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/wla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656\/revisions\/2704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/wla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/wla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/wla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/wla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}