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Anne Frewerd Scrapbook, 1945

By Anna Dvorak

Collection Overview

Title: Anne Frewerd Scrapbook, 1945

ID: MSS Frewerd

Primary Creator: Frewerd, Mary Anne Veroncia (1924-2002)

Extent: 0.2 cubic feet. More info below.

Date Acquired: 00/00/2017

Languages of Materials: English [eng]

Abstract

The Anne Frewerd Scrapbook consists of mementos from her time working at Los Alamos, New Mexico for the Manhattan Project in 1945.  Included are souvenir and personal photographs, newspaper clippings covering the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, and other ephemera related to her work in Los Alamos, including a telegram and pin.

Scope and Content Notes

Anne Frewerd collected and preserved photographs and mementos from her time in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and its environs in this bound scrapbook.

These items depict trips to Santa Fe (10 black and white souvenir + 15 drawn images) and Albuquerque (10 black and white souvenir images), and daily life in Los Alamos and surrounding areas including horseback riding, leisure time, and a rodeo. On several occasions, first names of those photographed are included.

Photographs are assumed to have been taken by Frewerd and her friends around May 1945. Souvenir images were produced by J. R. Willis and the Fred Harvey Company.  Along with the photos and souvenir images are other mementos, including brochures from trips to Santa Fe and Albuquerque, newspaper clippings regarding the first use of the atomic bomb and scientists involved with its development, and documents related to work at Los Alamos, such as a security handbook for residents and certificate of production.

Clippings included cover the American reaction to the Hiroshima bombing and the Manhattan Project, as well as three clippings discussing the Trinity test in July 1945 and observations on its effects from local citizens. The telegram dated January 26, 1945 indicates that Frewerd had received her security clearance and should notify officials when she expected to arrive. It also mentions that high school friend Laura Revona will be notified of her own clearance separately. The security handbook for residents of Los Alamos focuses on the safeguarding of military information, including restrictions on communication and censorship, and guidelines for both official and unofficial travel. The Army-Navy E award was awarded to workers in Los Alamos on October 16, 1945, and recognized excellence in wartime production. It was given to employees in honor of their “skill, industry, and devotion on the production front of the greatest war in history.”

Biographical / Historical Notes

Mary Anne Veronica Frewerd was born December 28, 1924, in Blue Earth County, Minnesota to Wilbur and Veronica “Nina” (née Foley) Frewerd. She graduated from Sullivan High School in Chicago, Illinois, in June 1943.

Before beginning work at Los Alamos, she did office work and spent time working as a waitress. Some of this work was done with the North Pacific Railway in Tacoma.

The telegram notification of her position at Los Alamos in January 1945, uses her parents address in Chicago. Her employment card (known as a McKibbin Card to Los Alamos employees, after Los Alamos arrival secretary Dorothy McKibbin) gives her dates of employment as February 19 to July 12, 1945. The nature of Frewerd's work at Los Alamos is unknown.

Anne married Kenneth K. Kinder in Seattle in May 1946. Kenneth died in March 1982 in Rough and Ready, Nevada. She married her second husband, Louis J. Verna, in August 1995. Anne passed away November 19, 2002.



Author: Anna Dvorak

Administrative Information

More Extent Information: 1 box; 62 photographs

Statement on Access: The collection is open for research.

Acquisition Note: The collection was acquired in 2017 as part of the Robert Dalton Harris, Jr. Collection of the Atomic Age.

Related Materials: Other participants in the Manhattan Project whose papers are held by SCARC include Buena Maris Mockmore, Theodore Rockwell, and David Nicodemus. Materials about Los Alamos National Laboratory can be found in the History of Atomic Energy Collection, the Robert Dalton Harris, Jr. Collection of Atomic Age Ephemera, and the Barton Hacker Papers.

Preferred Citation: Anne Frewerd Scrapbook (MSS Frewerd), Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.

Processing Information:

We acknowledge that materials in SCARC collections and the language that describes them may be harmful.  We are actively working to address our descriptive practices; for more information please see our SCARC Anti-Racist Actions Statement online.

Some materials in this collection use derogatory language to describe ethnic groups. We acknowledge the racism represented by the use of these phrases and the harm they may cause our users. Providing access to these historical materials does not endorse any attitudes or behavior depicted therein.

Creators

Frewerd, Mary Anne Veroncia (1924-2002)

People, Places, and Topics

Atomic bomb.
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Manhattan Project (U.S.)
Women in war
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American.
World War, 1939-1945--Women.

Forms of Material

Ephemera (general object genre)
Newspapers.
Photographic prints.
Scrapbooks.


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.