Spotlight on Collections/Archives

This is one way I am going to try and keep the blog up to date. I am going to find something in our collection or archive rooms, and I am going to give my reading public the history on the specific artifact. My first entry is going to be one artifact that I find really interesting because of my interest in World War II. It is a World War II Aviation Kit Bag.

This bag belonged to William (Bill) Cupp. He was a B-24 Ball turret gunner during WW II. Bill was shot down over Belgium in June 1944. Bill survived the rest of the war in a several POW camps and was finally released at the end of the war. When Bill's plane was shot down many things flew out of the plane. One thing that fell out was this Aviation Kit Bag. A young boy on the ground found Bill's bag and picked it up. He held on to the bag for many years until he tracked Bill down through many World War II veteran sources and returned the bag to him in the early 1990s. As you can see in the picture (below) Bill put is initials and his serial number on the bag so if it was ever lost it would be returned. He never thought it would have taken about 50 years to get it back.

In this picture (Left to Right) Hayes Scriven, Bill Cupp, Mark Fagerwick.
This was taken in September 2005 at a presentation given by NHS about Bill Cupp's journey.

Soldiers would carry many things in this bag. The soldiers may have included a survival kit, tools, extra ammo, cigarettes, and chocolate.

This is just one of thousands of artifacts that we have in our Archive/Collections rooms. I hope you enjoyed the story and the history.