Provenance
This collection contains photographs taken by an American GI, James Philip Kuykendall of California, as well as textiles and ephemeral items he collected in Europe during World War II. The collection was donated to Björn Krondorfer of Northern Arizona University’s Martin-Springer Institute on May 27, 2016 by Carol Wittmeier. Carol Wittmeier obtained the collection in 2005 from Donna Kuykendall, the wife of Philip J. Kuykendall, the son of the photographer. The collection was housed inside of a foot locker that was used to transport the family belongings from the United States to Puerto Rico in 1953. Unfortunately the bottom eight inches of locker were destroyed in a flood, but the box housing these materials survived. The collection was processed from August to December of 2019.
Funded and supervised by the Martin-Springer Institute, the collection was processed by a student team from August 2019 to August 2020. The team included Abbey Buckham (lead: research/preservation/archival), Holly Filsinger (lead: archival/website), and Ryan Badertscher.
Research & Archiving
The Martin-Springer Institute, with the generous support of MicMar Demolition, LLC (Phoenix), funded a two-week research trip for graduate student Abbey Buckham to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) in Washington D.C. (August 2019). Buckham used the museum’s research library for historical background information and consulted with USHMM staff to learn about photograph curation, preservation, and collection management in preparation for the project.
Research for the collection was conducted primarily using the Ancestry.com database and with assistance from USHMM staff. Information found on the Ebensee cemetery (Germany) and Lew Efimowitsch (Soviet prisoner of war) was provided by Dr. Wolfgang Quatember of the Zeitgeschichte Museum, the Museum for Contemporary History in Ebensee, Germany.
Specific research findings can be found with their corresponding series and subseries in the collection.
Scope & Content
The Military Personnel File for James Philip Kuykendall was burned in the National Personnel Records Center fire of 1973 in St. Louis, Missouri, and confirmed by the institution. He is the son of Furmon Jackson Kuykendall and Iola B. Maddox and was born on November 22, 1921 in Santa Ana, California. He was previously employed by the Vega Airplane Company before he registered in the military on February 14, 1942 and officially enlisted on September 18, 1942 as a private in the Warrant Officers Immaterial Branch. His Army Serial Number is 39535676, according to the National Archives and Records Administration. By 1945, he was a 1st Lieutenant of the 581st Motor Ambulance Company and was Captain of the Medical Service Corps by October 2, 1953. His letter of discharge from the U.S. Army was sent to the Headquarters of U.S. Army Forces Antilles and Military District of Puerto Rico in Fort Brooke, Puerto Rico. Arm patches viewable in photographs also confirm that he was part of Patton’s 3rd Army. He died on June 4, 2005 in Indian Wells, California and is buried in Santa Barbara, California.
James married Helen Elaine Howard on December 13, 1940 in Ventura County, California. Helen was born on January 14, 1922 in Springfield, Missouri and died on November 19, 1999 in Indian Wells, California. They had three children born in Ventura County, California: Philip James Kuykendall, born August 13, 1947, Phillis Elaine Kuykendall, born June 8, 1949, and William Lee Kiykendall, born February 5, 1958. The family left for San Juan, Puerto Rico from New York, New York on June 22, 1951 on the USNS Henry Gibbins, according to U.S. Departing Passenger and Crew Lists, 1914-1966 from the U.S. Department of Justice, Immigration and Naturalization.
Locations captioned in the photographs include Ansbach, Ebensee, Eisenach, Forchheim (sic Forscheim) Geisenhausen (sic Giesenhausen), Neumarkt, Neudstadt, Nurnberg/Nuremberg, Paulinzella, Plauen, Regensburg, Saalfeld, Schleiz, Seligenthal, Traunsee, and Türkheim, Germany and Reid, Austria.
Officers captioned in the photographs include Lieutenant James D. Clark, Corona, Chaplain Hartsell of the 10th Armored Division, Lieutenant James D. Clark, Major Jack D. DeMott, Dilallio, Lieutenant “George” Dzurison (sic Dzierson), William M. Kerfoot, Condry M. Livingston, W.O. O’Brien, Lieutenant Cas. Pontius, Captain “John” Porter, 1st Sergeant Steel, Sergeant Beers, and Captain John M. Shaul. Ancestry research on Captain Condry McKinley Livingston reveal that he was born September 12, 1918 and died August 15, 2000 and is buried in Pleasant Hill, Missouri. William Macatee Kerfoot of Front Royal, Warren, Virginia was born February 8, 1918 and died October 27, 1973.
Some of the photographs in the Ebensee subseries feature James and his comrades at a cemetary and posing alongside a grave. It was the first cemetery of concentration camp victims buried after the liberation of the camp Ebensee. About 850 people were buried there, who were found by U.S liberators in the camp or died after liberation. The inauguration of that cemetery took place on June 2nd, 1946 by Polish ex inmates. The grave is dedicated to Lew Efimowitsch Manewitsch, a Russian Lieutenant who died on May 9th, 1945 of tuberculosis. He was born in “Tschaussy”/Chavusy in Belarus on August 20, 1898. He was a Russian spy, captured by the Germans in Italy. His code name was “Starostin,” but the code names “Yakow Nikititsch Starostin” or “Albert Körner” have also been attributed to him. He received a special burial accompanied by U.S. liberators, and later he became a “Hero of the Soviet Union.” The cemetery was abandoned in 1952 and all human remains were transferred and reburied at a new burial ground on the former camp’s site.
Patches visible in photographs include, Officer Cadet School, 10th “Tigers” Armored Division, 14th “Liberators” Armored Division, Patton’s 3rd Army, Technical Sergeant, Staff Sergeant, Master Sergeant, First Sergeant, and Technician 3rd, 4th, and 5th Grade. One more patch remains unknown which contains a dark background, white flower (6 rounds), light star embroidered in the center and worn on the left shoulder.
Watermarks reveal that they were printed on Agfa-Brovira Bromine, Agfa-Lupex, Mimosa Sunotyp, and Velox photographic paper.