Navy spouses

Scope and Contents

3.25x5.5 black and white photo of ADM and Mrs. Spruance with Captain Amsden in Jamestown, RI.

Content Description The Wilma J. Miles papers were presented to the Naval War College in two separate lots: the first accession, mainly correspondence, writings, tourist literature, and photographs, was given by Mrs. Miles in 1974, and the second lot, correspondence and tourist literature relating to South America, in 1977. Both accessions were presented through the Naval War College Foundation.The papers focus on Wilma Miles’s life and travels as a Navy wife for over a quarter of a century, with emphasis on the period from 1925 to 1955. They include materials relating to her life as a young bride in China from 1925 to 1927 during the era of the warlords and growing Chinese nationalism, and a return three-year stay there from 1936 to 1939, just prior to the outbreak of World War II. Another large segment of the papers focuses on her travels throughout South America when her husband served as Commandant of the Fifteenth Naval District, Balboa, Canal Zone, from 1954 to 1956.The collection contains fifteen boxes, a file cabinet of photographs, and numerous photograph albums and books. It measures thirty-nine linear feet and is divided into six series: correspondence, writings, subject files, miscellany, photographs, and books.Series I, personal correspondence, consists of letters to Wilma Miles from her fiancé, Milton Miles, and his letters to her mother, Mrs. Charles Jerman, containing news of China and his experiences as an officer in the Asiatic Fleet from...