Papers of Katherine M. Keene, 1941-1977 (inclusive), 1941-1945 (bulk)

The collection contains correspondence, diaries, photographs, a WAC uniform, and ephemera documenting Katherine Keene's service as a member of the Women's Army Corps (WACs) attached to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II. Diaries and letters Keene wrote to her family in Seattle, Washington, document Keene's WAC experiences from enlistment, through training, and throughout her overseas assignments in London, England; Paris, France; Biebrich, Germany; and Berlin, Germany. Keene spent most of the war in London and wrote about mundane topics such as drilling, the quality of the food available, the weather, and cleaning her living quarters, amidst accounts of viewing bomb damage in London, getting around London in the dark during blackouts, and surviving air raids. Materials from her brief stay in Paris contain descriptions of the city with commentary on the lack of bomb damage the city incurred in comparison to London. Keene's writings while in Germany contain descriptions of bomb damage, speculation on the demobilization process, and complaints about the poor quality of the food available. Keene also commented on the German people she saw: describing Germans begging for food outside of the WAC mess hall, noting the strain of interacting with former enemies, and speculating that quality of life for Germans during the war had been better than it had been for the English people based on the dress of post-war Germans. Keene also described living in the house of a deposed German family who frequently visited the house to care for the yard and gardens. While she expressed some sympathy for the displaced families, she justified the situation by imagining that the families had been Nazis.

Photograph journals were compiled by Keene after the war and contain typed excerpts from her war-time letters and diaries illustrated by photographs of the places she visited and people she served with. During the war, Keene's writings were subject to Army censorship, a fact that she commented on frequently in both her letters and diaries. As a result, none of Keene's war-time materials contain mention of the OSS or the work Keene performed during the war beyond mentions of typing reports. Keene expounded on the nature of the reports she typed, and detailed other clerical work she performed for the OSS in an undated memoir, found in folder #2.7.

Files are arranged alphabetically. All folder titles and descriptions were created by the archivist. Most of the photographs in this collection are or will be digitized and available online.