Wade Hall Collection of American Letters: Finley Triplett, Jr. papers
Abstract
Descriptive Summary
- Title
- Wade Hall Collection of American Letters: Finley Triplett, Jr. papers
- Date
- 1940-1946 (inclusive)
- Creator
- Triplett, Finley, Jr., 1916-1997
- Extent
- 0.9 Cubic Feet
- Subjects
- Air pilots, Military
- Military training camps.
- Soldiers -- Correspondence
- World War, 1939-1945.
- Arrangement
- Collection is arranged chronologically and by format. The Wade Hall Collection of American Letters has been processed into discrete collections based on provenance.
- Preferred Citation
- 2009ms132.0039: [identification of item], Wade Hall Collection of American Letters: Finley Triplett, Jr. papers, 1940-1946, University of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center.
- Repository
- University of Kentucky
Collection Overview
- Biography / History
- Finley K. Triplett, Jr. was born on February 18, 1916 in Louisville, Kentucky, the son of Caroline Esther Carr and Finley Triplett, Sr. He had one sister, Doris, and a niece, Billie Ann. After graduating from high school, he worked at a laundry at Fort Knox and as a taxi cab driver in Louisville prior to World War II. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps on January 8, 1942 at Fort Thomas, Kentucky, and went through basic training at Keesler Field outside of Biloxi, Mississippi from January through March of 1942. After basic training, he was sent to Morrison Field in West Palm Beach, Florida, until December, when he was sent to Santa Ana, California to begin pre-flight training. In April of 1943 he was sent to Eagle Field near Dos Palos and then to Chico, California for flight school. He washed out of flight school after landing on the wrong field during a flight test. He was later reassigned for a short while to Amarillo, Texas, before being stationed at MacDill Field at Tampa, Florida for the remainder of the war. There he first worked in the laundry before helping to train bombardiers in B-17 and B-29 bombers. He received his discharge from the army in late 1945. He died on April 15, 1997 in Wilmore, Kentucky at the age of 81.
- American Letters collector Wade Hall (1934-2015) was a native of Union Springs, Alabama. Starting in 1962, he lived in Louisville, where he taught English and chaired the English and Humanities/Arts programs at Kentucky Southern College and Bellarmine University. He also taught at the University of Illinois and the University of Florida. He held degrees from Troy State University (B.S.), the University of Alabama (M.A.), and the University of Illinois (Ph.D.). He served for two years in the U.S. Army in the mid-fifties. Dr. Hall was the author of books, monographs, articles, plays, and reviews relating to Kentucky, Alabama, and Southern history and literature. His most recent books include A Visit with Harlan Hubbard; High Upon a Hill: A History of Bellarmine College; A Song in Native Pastures: Randy Atcher's Life in Country Music; and Waters of Life from Conecuh Ridge.
- Scope and Content
- The Finley Triplett, Jr. papers (dated 1940-1946; 0.9 cubic feet; 12 folders) comprise letters, pamphlets, clippings, and photographs from Triplett that document life in the military during World War II. Within the letters, he discusses daily routines, outbreaks of diseases, women doing traditional men's jobs, meeting veterans from the fighting on Guadalcanal, friends killed in combat, Iwo Jima, the atomic bomb, and lessons learned about life while in the army.
- The Finley Triplett, Jr. papers are part of the Wade Hall Collection of American letters, which includes correspondence and diaries from all over North America covering the time period of the Civil to Korean Wars. The materials were collected by Wade Hall and document everyday men and women.
Restrictions on Access and Use
- Conditions Governing Access
- The collection is open to researchers by appointment.
- Use Restrictions
- The physical rights to the materials in this collection are held by the University of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center.
UK Libraries Special Collections Research Center is open Monday to Friday, 9:00am to 4:00pm. Appointments are encouraged but not required. Schedule an appointment here.
Researchers must have an SCRC Researcher Account to request materials. View account set-up and use instructions here.
Questions? Contact SCRC via our Contact Form.
Table of Contents
You may come across language in UK Libraries Special Collections Research Center collections and online resources that you find harmful or offensive. SCRC collects materials from different cultures and time periods to preserve and make available the historical record. These materials document the time period when they were created and the view of their creator. As a result, some may demonstrate racist and offensive views that do not reflect the values of UK Libraries.
If you find description with problematic language that you think SCRC should review, please contact us at SCRC@uky.edu.
UK Libraries Special Collections Research Center is open Monday to Friday, 9:00am to 4:00pm. Appointments are encouraged but not required. Schedule an appointment here.
Researchers must have an SCRC Researcher Account to request materials. View account set-up and use instructions here.
Questions? Contact SCRC via our Contact Form.
Requests
No items have been requested.
You may come across language in UK Libraries Special Collections Research Center collections and online resources that you find harmful or offensive. SCRC collects materials from different cultures and time periods to preserve and make available the historical record. These materials document the time period when they were created and the view of their creator. As a result, some may demonstrate racist and offensive views that do not reflect the values of UK Libraries.
If you find description with problematic language that you think SCRC should review, please contact us at SCRC@uky.edu.
