University of Arizona receives donation of USS Arizona memorabilia from sailor's family
The University of Arizona recently received a donation of what it’s calling an “exceptional” trove of materials from the USS Arizona.
The items were donated by the family of a sailor who served aboard the battleship, which was destroyed in the Pearl Harbor attack.
The materials — which include a number of unique items, as well as historic photographs — will be added to the UA libraries’ USS Arizona collection.
Curator Trent Purdy met with the family.
“I often get numerous donations to the USS Arizona collection throughout the year but those are often done through the mail, and I never get an opportunity to meet the actual donors," he said.
Among the most notable items was a liberty card, which allowed sailors to come and go from the ship while in port. Purdy said the cards are fragile and rare, and this is the first to be donated to the collection.
Purdy called the card “really special.”
“That's the only specimen of that particular document we have in the collection, so that was to me what I call the cherry on top of the collection. I was very, very excited that that was included in the donation," he said.
Purdy will create digital copies of the items and add them to an online database.
