Digital Exhibit: Dear Mr. Fletcher: Letters from the Second World War

Special Collections has posted a new digital exhibit entitled Dear Mr. Fletcher: Letters from the Second World War.

During World War II, many students of Southwestern Louisiana Institute (now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette) enlisted in the armed forces. President Joel L. Fletcher wrote letters to these troops and encouraged them to write back. More than 100 men wrote back to President Fletcher during the course of the war, spanning all three theaters and all four branches of the U.S. Armed Forces.

This exhibit chronicles four soldiers who wrote to President Fletcher: S/Sgt. L.B. Governale, T/Sgt. W. Allen Sistrunk, Sgt. Adam Sonnier, and Capt. Randall Stelly. These four men, through nearly 70 letters to President Fletcher, provide a permanent, firsthand record of World War II. Materials for this exhibit are courtesy of the University Archives in the Acadiana Manuscripts Collection.

The exhibit was curated, compiled, and composed by Samual Hebert, a student volunteer at the University Archives and Acadiana Manuscripts Collection. He is currently studying medieval and religious studies at the University of Chicago and working as an archivist for their student film society.