COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020
Epidemics
Grand Valley State University
College students
Personal narratives
Video journal of Ryan Elliott, GVSU electrical engineering student, during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this video, Ryan gives updates about work and church.
Elliott, Ryan
University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project
Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives.
In Copyright
Video journal of Ryan Elliott, GVSU electrical engineering student, during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this video, Ryan gives updates about his upcoming wedding plans, politics, and the governor's stay at home order.
Ellis, Roger (Interview transcript and video), 2017
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States—History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975—Personal narratives, American
Roger Ellis was born on May 18, 1943 in Chicago, Illinois, but grew up in San Jose, California, where he graduated from a prep high school. Ellis then attended college for a bachelor’s degree in English and Dramatic Literature. He also participated in the Reserve Officer Training Courses for the Navy, and then the Army, but lost interest by 1963 due to conflict heating up overseas and the counterculture movement at home. In 1963, he studied abroad in Italy for a year. He then attended a master’s program in Dramatic Literature at the University of Santa Clara in California before the draft prevented him from moving onto achieve his Doctorate in 1967. Entering the Army in 1968, Ellis attended Basic Training as well as Advanced Individual Training at Fort Lewis, Washington. After training, he was deployed to Saigon, Vietnam, where he was assigned to an infantry unit at Bien Hoa Air Base. As a Light Weapons Infantryman, Ellis accompanied foot patrols that secured perimeters around Bien Hoa. Later, Ellis was reassigned as an administrative Clerk for the Morning Report Section of a Headquarters Battalion in Bien Hoa, and then in Phu Bai. He also took up photography and worked as an English teacher for orphan girls in a village near the base. At the end of his tour in 1970, Ellis was flown back to Chicago where he was officially discharged from the Army. Once back in the United States, he was surprised by the hostility of antiwar protests directed against Vietnam veterans. Ellis reunited with his wife and returned to his Doctorate program at the University of California, Berkeley where he also rejoined the antiwar protests. He grew critical of the military, economic, and human waste caused by the war, especially as the Armed Forces made their hasty retreat from Vietnam after 1973. Reflecting upon his time in the service, Ellis believed he was part of a great historical era since it was difficult to discuss his war experience with those who had not lived it. He also appreciated the Army’s veteran benefits and the greater military experience, which he used as a critical lens into contemporary American military politics.
Ellis, Roger
Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)
Grand Valley State University Libraries, Special Collections & University Archives, 1 Campus Drive, Allendale, MI, 49401.
Garret Ellison, 2021 (Interview video and transcript)
Personal narrative
PFAs (Perfluorinated chemicals)
Groundwater--Pollution
Garret Ellison is an investigative environmental reporter at Mlive and Grand Rapids Press in Michigan. In this interview, Ellison discusses PFAS contamination in the Wolverine Worldwide site in Rockford, MI and his role in breaking MI-based PFAS stories.
Ellison, Garret
Living with PFAS (project)
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives
In copyright
Righteous Gentiles in the Holocaust
Program of the meeting on the occasion of the presentation of the Yad Vashem awards on Thursday November 1, 1990. In Dutch.
Embassy of Israel
Adriana B. and Peter N. Termaat collection (RHC-144)
Master plan reports
Empire (Mich.)
Empire Township (Mich.)
Leelanau County (Mich.)
The Village of Empire Master Plan was prepared by the Empire Planning Commission with the assistance of Networks Northwest in 2019.
Empire Planning Commission, Village of Empire, Empire Township, Leelanau County, Michigan
Planning and Zoning Center Collection (RHC-240)
No Copyright - United States
Ana Encarnación video interview and biography
Young Lords (Organization)
Puerto Ricans--United States
Civil Rights--United States--History
Lincoln Park (Chicago, Ill.)
Puerto Ricans--Personal narratives
Spanish language--Personal narratives
Social justice
Community activists--Illinois--Chicago
Puerto Ricans--Illinois--Chicago--Social life and customs
Medical care--Illinois--Chicago
Puerto Ricans--Illinois--Chicago--Social conditions
Urban renewal--Illinois--Chicago
Puerto Rico--Autonomy and independence movements
Ana Encarnación is from the San Juan metropolitan area of Puerto Rico and describes growing up there in the late 1930s and 1940s. She arrived in Chicago in the 1950s, settling in Old Town, along the border dividing Old Town from neighboring Lincoln Park. She lived on the south side of North Avenue, at the corner of Sedgewick. When the Young Lords decided in 1968 to start to defend the Puerto Ricans and the poor from being displaced, it was her dream come true to join the Young Lords Movement. She saw it as a way to help her people. Ms. Encarnación was in nursing and so she began to work in the Young Lords’ Emeterio Betances Free Health Clinic. Ms. Encarnación describes how the volunteer staff, including herself, not only provided many long hours of free services to the Puerto Ricans and poor of Lincoln Park but when money was low, they also donated from their own personal savings to keep the clinic afloat.
Encarnación, Ana
Indians of North America -- Michigan -- Periodicals
Indians of North America
Michigan
Michigan -- Grand Rapids
Gissiwas Creek Indian Pow Wow flyer, Evart MI, May 28-30, 1991, collected by Edward Gillis included as part of his Native American publication collection.
End of the Trail
Gissiwas Creek Indian Pow Wow flyer, Evart MI, May 28-30, 1993, collected by Edward Gillis included as part of his Native American publication collection.
Endres, Duane (Interview outline and video), 2011
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
United States. Navy
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Duane Endres was born on a farm in Michigan in 1924. He was drafted into the Navy 1945. Prior to this he received a deferment due to his work at Michigan State University. He remained on the home front during his service and was stationed in Norman, Oklahoma, and Livermore, California. He was a seaman 2nd class, worked in the mess hall in Oklahoma, and was assigned to refrigeration in California. He was discharged from the Navy in 1946.
Endres, Duane
Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)
Engel, Albert (Interview outline and video, 1 of 2), 2012
United States. Army Air Corps
Albert Engel, son of U.S. congressman Albert J. Engel, served in the U.S. Army from February 1943 to April 1946 in the European Theater during World War II. During basic training, Albert applied for OCS school, but due to his young age did poorly, but did receive his commission. Before being sent to England, Albert was assigned as commander of the 80th Bomb Disposal Squad. However, shortly after arriving in France Albert was transferred to the HQ for the 19th tactical air command. Here he was assigned to represent defendants in court martial cases. Albert than applied to be the commander of the 86th Bomb Disposal Squad. He stayed commander of this squad until his discharge in 1946.
Engel, Albert
Engel, Albert (Interview outline and video, 2 of 2), 2012
Jean Englehart audio interview and transcript
Civil rights--Michigan--History
Jeanne was raised in Atlanta, Michigan. She is a successful business women in the West Michigan area. She discusses how she became the successful woman that she is today.
Englehart, Jean
Speaking Out: Western Michigan Civil Rights Oral History Project
Ensing, Eugene "Spud" (Interview outline and video), 2012
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Other veterans & civilians--Personal narratives, American
Spud Ensing was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan late in 1926. He enlisted in the Navy in 1944 and trained as an aircraft mechanic, but the war ended before he got in it. After contracting malaria while on assignment in Florida, he was given a medical discharge, but soon reenlisted and trained on jet aircraft, and eventually served in Korea after the end of the fighting there. In 1957, he transferred to the Air Force, and did a tour in the Philippines in 1965-66, where he serviced C-130 transport aircraft and made regular trips to Vietnam, and retired in 1968 rather than return to Vietnam.
Ensing, Eugene "Spud"
United States
Netherlands
Netherlands--Kings and rulers
Dutch Americans
Meditation delivered by Jacob D. Eppinga, Pastor of LaGrave Avenue Christian Church at the service of Thanksgiving and Praise, in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Beatrix and His Royal Highness, Prince Claus, June 27, 1982, in honor of 200 years of friendship between the Netherlands and the United States of America.
Eppinga, Jacob D.
Eppinga, Stuart Dirk (Interview outline and video), 2015
Stuart Eppinga was born in Detroit, Michigan on June 17, 1925. After graduating from high school in 1943 he was drafted into the Navy. He received basic training at Camp Peary, Virginia and got assigned to Naval Air Station Bermuda Annex, Bermuda where he helped with maintenance, went on anti-submarine patrols in PBY-3s, and witnessed the capture of six Italian submarines and one German submarine. After eighteen months he requested reassignment and was sent to Guam. On Guam he oversaw Japanese prisoners of war being used for work, and was stationed there for six months. At the end of the war he had enough points to go home and returned to the U.S. by way of the USS Enterprise.
Eppinga, Stuart Dirk
Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan
Students, Foreign
Belonging
My mother took this picture of me and my brothers in Salzburg, Austria. It was the last vacation we did as a family before I left for the United States, and it reminds me of the importance of family, as I have no family anywhere close to the university. The campus could improve to support incoming and international students better in order to make them feel more welcome and integrated.
Erasmus
Grand Valley State University. Kaufman Interfaith Institute
Kaufman Interfaith Institute (exhibitor)
Believing and Belonging on Campus: An Interfaith Photovoice Project (project)
LGBTQ+ people
I saw this LGBTQIA+ flag on a church when visiting Holland for the first time. I like how it shows that churches individually can decide to support the LGBTQIA+ community, which faces”, especially in the outer Grand Rapids area and within Christianity”, a lot of resentment. Back in Germany, a LGBTQIA+ flag on a church would not be possible in smaller towns like Holland.
Erickson, Floyd (Interview transcript and video), 2017
Floyd Erickson was born in 1922 in Gwinn, Michigan, a small town in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, 18-miles south of Marquette. Erickson grew up in Gwinn and eventually after graduating high school in 1941, went to Detroit to work in a factory making airplane parts. A year after Pearl Harbor, Erickson moved home to Gwinn because he knew he would be drafted soon. Nearly a year after Pearl Harbor, Erickson reported for duty in February in Fort Sheridan, Illinois. He was then sent to Camp Roberts in California for basic training. It was from here that Erickson was assigned to the 87th Infantry Regiment, part of the 10th Mountain Division. Erickson’s first assignment was to Kiska in Japan. However, after a month he was sent to Camp Hale, Colorado. As 1944 approached, Erickson and his regiment were sent to Italy, where his regiment spent most of their time. Eventually, due to his service and helping when his fellow soldiers were injured, Erickson was awarded a Bronze Star. Quickly after, Erickson received orders to go home as the war was over in Europe in May 1945. Despite offers to move up as a Technical Sergeant, Erickson decided to leave the Army and get married to his wife. Erickson then went into construction where he worked in the industry for over 60 years.
Erickson, Floyd H.
Erickson, John (Interview outline and video), 2009
United States. Army
John Erickson is a Korean War veteran who served with the U.S. Army from November 1949 to 1953. Erickson discusses his training and service in Washington and Alaska before he was sent to Korea. He joined the 2nd Division on its advance from Pusan to the Yalu River, and was taken prisoner during a counterattack by the Chinese Red Army, and spent the remainder of the war different Chinese POW camps, and provides detailed descriptions of his experiences as a POW.
Erickson, John
Erickson, Stanley (Interview transcript and video), 2017
Stanley Erickson was born in Harris, Minnesota in 1919 and after high school worked his way through college as a painter in Chicago. Erickson was drafted into active duty in 1943 and went to Boca Raton, Florida for basic training and then went to a tech school in New Haven, Connecticut, where he trained to be an aircraft mechanic and was commissioned to be a flight engineering officer. After tech school, Erickson went to the Boeing School in Seattle where he learned to work on B-29s before briefly being sent to Kansas to continue his training. In 1945 Erickson left for Saipan, Japan and flew 35 missions while he was there, lasting until the end of the war. After the war Erickson joined the International Guard and served in France for a year before returning to Chicago to attend Northwestern and study and work in automatic control.
Erickson, Stanley
Holocaust Remembrance Day
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
Holocaust survivors
Address delivered by Berendina Erlich at the Remembrance Service on National Holocaust day in Congregation Ahavas Israel, Grand Rapids, Michigan on April 10, 1983
Erlich, Berendina R. H.
Erskine, Vernon (Interview transcript and video), 2020
Vern Erskine was born in Allenville, Michigan in 1921. He attended and graduated high school in St. Ignace, Michigan. He was drafted to the Army in the fall of 1942 and was required to report for duty at Camp Grant, Illinois. Vern completed his basic training at Camp Livingston, Louisiana. He became part of the artillery in the 1st battalion, 101st regiment, which was attached to the 28th division. Vern was sent overseas to Europe in the fall of 1943 to serve in World War 2. He landed in Normandy 12 days after D-Day. He spent time in Belgium, France, Luxembourg, and Germany. He participated in the Battle of the Bulge. During his time serving in World War 2, he was involved in various skirmishes. Vern was able to meet both General Eisenhower and General Patton while in Europe. He left Europe in the fall of 1945 to return to the U.S. After discharging from the military, Vern returned home to Michigan where he currently lives with his family.
Erskine, Vernon L.
Erwin, Louis (Interview outline and video), 2016
Louis Kayo Erwin Sr. was born in Dayton, Tennessee, on March 1, 1925. He grew up in Dayton then on a farm in Big Spring, Tennessee. When he was 16 he moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee, and enlisted in the Navy when he was 17 years old. He enlisted on December 20, 1942, and on December 26 he shipped out for basic training in San Diego. Louis initially received orders for the aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill. He stayed on the Bunker Hill until summer 1943 when he joined the USS Indianapolis. He saw action at Tarawa, Saipan, Tinian, Guam, and Iwo Jima. In March 1945 the Indianapolis was struck by a kamikaze forcing them to return to the US for repairs. In July 1945 they received orders for a secret mission. On July 16, 1945, the atomic bomb components were loaded onto the USS Indianapolis at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard and they delivered the components on July 26, 1945 at Tinian. On July 30, the I-58 torpedoed and sank the USS Indianapolis. Louis and the other survivors had to endure exposure, shark attacks, and saltwater poisoning. On August 2 a seaplane spotted the survivors and they were rescued. Louis and only 316 other crewmen survived. After recovering on Peleliu and Guam he returned to the United States. He briefly served at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado before being discharged in late 1945.
Erwin, Louis