By Elizabeth Nielsen
Title: Ella Mae Cloake Diary, 1941-1944
ID: MSS Cloake
Primary Creator: Cloake, Ella Mae (1925-2007)
Extent: 2.64 gigabytes. More info below.
Languages of Materials: English [eng]
The Ella Mae Cloake Diary is a digital version of a personal daily diary created by Ella Mae Cloake from 1941 to 1944 that documents her life as a high school and college student, in Roseburg and Corvallis, Oregon, during World War II . Cloake received the diary from her brother, Wallace Henry (“Wally”) Cloake as a Christmas gift in 1940. This “Five Year Diary” includes one page for each day of the year (e.g. January 1) with a few lines allotted for the daily entry from each year. Cloake’s diary entries are short, consisting of a few phrases or sentences describing the weather for that day and her activities. The earliest entry is for January 1, 1941 and the last entry was made in early September 1944.
The diary includes handwritten entries made by Cloake during her first two terms at Oregon State in Winter and Spring 1944 as well as her last years of high school. Several entries of note are her mention of the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and the U.S. declaration of war against Japan on December 8, 1941. In her diary entry for December 9, 1943, she writes that Oregon State “accepted me”, that she had sent in her $5 fee, and that she had asked for her resignation at the Soldier’s Home. Her December 13, 1943 entry notes she had received some small pictures of her brother Wally from Australia. For June 6, 1944, she wrote that the D-day invasion of France was underway and that she had attended a D-Day church service. She makes brief references to exams, studying, and meeting with her advisor in entries during the time she was an Oregon State student. In addition to her daily entries, the diary includes expenses and income, lists of gifts received for her high school graduation, family birthdays, and addresses.
This digital surrogate was made from the original diary loaned to the Special Collections and Archives Research Center in 2016. Two PDF files of the diary are available for use in the Special Collections and Archives Research Center Reading Room or upon request. Both files include the entirety of the diary; one is higher resolution and a larger file (2.7 Gbytes) and the second is a smaller file (38 Mbytes).
Alumna Ella Mae Cloake attended Oregon State College in 1944-1945 as a home economics student. Cloake was a long-time resident of Roseburg and graduated from Roseburg High School in 1943. She had a passion for preserving the history of Douglas County. In her diary entry for December 9, 1943, she wrote that she had been accepted by Oregon State, sent in her $5 fee, and “asked for her resignation” from the Soldiers Home. Cloake enrolled at Oregon State in January 1944 and attended for the winter and spring terms of 1944 and all three terms of the 1944-1945 academic year. She did not complete a degree at Oregon State.
Ella Mae Cloake married Bert Young in 1945 and had three children; she was born in Roseburg on June 5, 1925 and died in Roseburg in May 2007.
Ella Mae's brother, Wallace Henry ("Wally") attended Oregon State College and earned a degree in engineering in 1940; he died in Australia in World War II.
More Extent Information: 2 files
Statement on Access: Collection is open for research.
Acquisition Note: This diary was loaned to the Special Collections and Archives Research Center in 2016 by Cloake's granddaughter, Kyra Blank, for digitization. The original diary was returned to the lender.
Related Materials: The Special Collections and Archives Research Center’s collections include many materials documenting the experience of students at Oregon State College during the 1940s; the following collections are of special note. The Delta Zeta Sorority Chi Chapter Scrapbook (MSS DeltaZeta), the Oregon State Yank Collection (MSS Yank), and the Oregon State Yank Newsletters (PUB 010-15c) document the experiences of women during the war years. The Bernice Forest Diary (MSS Forest) and the Helen Lepper Diary (MSS Lepper) consist of diaries by women students from earlier periods in the 20th century. The Eva Blackwell and William A. Frater Family Collection (MSS BlackwellFrater) documents other long-time residents of Roseburg, Oregon.
Preferred Citation: Ella Mae Cloake Diary (MSS Cloake), Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.
Cloake, Ella Mae (1925-2007)
College students--Oregon--Corvallis.
High school students--Oregon.
Oregon State College--Students.
Roseburg (Or.)
University History
Women--Education (Higher)--Oregon--Corvallis.
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American.
Diaries.
Digital images.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.