Holloway Exhibit - Home - Archives - Marquette University

The papers of John and Priscilla Holloway form one of the largest collections of World War II-era correspondence by Wisconsin residents. John and Priscilla, both former students of Marquette University, exchanged more than 1,300 letters from 1942-1946. The collection is particularly unique because military personnel rarely had the opportunity to preserve correspondence received from family and friends in the United States. John's letters describe his training at Camp Shelby, Mississippi and his service in the South Pacific. Priscilla's letters document the Milwaukee homefront. Her letters describe planned blackouts during the summer of 1942, the disappearance of former Mayor Carl Zeidler in the Atlantic Ocean, reactions to the atomic bombing of Japan, and the death of President Roosevelt. The collection also includes letters by Marquette faculty such as Journalism Regent Gerald P. Brennan, S.J.; Cyril P. Donohue, S.J., and Dean Jeremiah O'Sullivan. A list of other Marquette University collections with World War II content is provided at the end of this page.

John Llewellyn Holloway was born in Beloit, Wisconsin on September 14, 1908 to Dean and Mabel Holloway. He graduated from Beloit High School in 1926 and enrolled in Marquette University's School of Journalism in September 1936. John edited the Marquette Journal during the 1940-1941 academic year and graduated in June 1941. After graduation, he worked for various area newspapers, including the Appleton Post Crescent, the Milwaukee Post, and the Milwaukee Journal.

Priscilla Holloway. Priscilla Margaret Kohn was born in Milwaukee on October 16, 1910, the daughter of Charles and Elizabeth Kohn. In June 1927, she graduated from Washington High School. Priscilla worked in Milwaukee as a stenographer and took evening division courses at Marquette University in 1937 and 1938. She and John married on June 25, 1938.

In May 1942, John was drafted into the U.S. Army, joining Company D of the 103^rd Infantry, 43^rd Infantry Division. He trained in Camp Shelby, Mississippi and was then transferred to Fort Ord, California. From there, John shipped out to the South Pacific, where he wrote to Priscilla from various locations including New Zealand, New Caledonia, and the Russell Islands. Eventually reaching the rank of sergeant, John was a non-combatant. Priscilla remained in Milwaukee, writing John almost daily about the impact that the war on the Milwaukee homefront.

After the war, John and Priscilla had one child, Mark S. Holloway. John died on April 3, 1988 and Priscilla on March 11, 2002, both in Janesville, Wisconsin.

Before the United States officially entered World War II, Marquette University had already taken steps to participate in the government's defense measures. In 1940, a Naval R.O.T.C. program was organized on campus with 110 freshmen members; a Civilian Pilot Training program gave young men basic air experience on the condition that, if necessary, they would enter the Air Force; and the College of Engineering offered night courses for men in industry, under authorization of the U.S. Department of Education (Marquette Tribune, September 25, 1941, p. 3).

Following the December 7th attack on Pearl Harbor, student editorials in The Marquette Tribune discussed the moral issues posed by this war for Catholics (December 11, 1941, p. 4). In the same issue, administrators urged students to adopt a "sane war attitude" and not volunteer too quickly. Echoing the position of others, Rev. Raphael Hamilton, Dean of the Graduate School, warned students against "impetuous activity which is the result of impatient eagerness to be doing something," and asked them to continue their studies until told otherwise by the government (p. 2).

Not all students followed this advice. During the first few months of the second semester, 1942-1943 academic year, more than 100 students withdrew from the College of Liberal Arts alone. In the March 12, 1942 issue, the Tribune ran its first weekly list of students who were either in the armed services or who had been accepted and sworn in. To meet the demands of students who wished to earn their degrees before entering the armed forces, the University shortened the 1941-1942 academic year. The Law School took the further step of adding a summer semester to the school year, thus enabling students to complete the usual three-year program in two years. The Dental School and the Medical School also established accelerated programs, while the Colleges of Business Administration, Engineering, and Journalism added new classes to prepare students for their work in the war effort. A double period summer session was offered in 1942 to speed Hilltoppers towards graduation (Tribune, May 21, 1942, p. 1).

For many students, the promise of an accelerated degree could not compete with the social pressure to join up. Enlistment advertisements in the Tribune encouraged men to sign up right away, and campus publications, such as the football programs, offered idealized images of the military for students to emulate.

Many social activities on-campus were curtailed, and the few that remained were given military themes. In 1942, the Union Board cancelled prom and held instead the university’s first Military Ball. Other initiatives by the board included allowing free admission at university dances to all Marquette servicemen, and, in order to promote the sale of war bonds, permitting only corsages made of defense stamps to be worn at dances. In 1943, students dropped the parade, bonfire, and dances for Homecoming. By 1944, even the informal university dances were abolished.

By 1943, more than 2,500 Marquette students were in the service. That same year, the Naval R.O.T.C graduated its first class of cadets to be commissioned as ensigns of the U.S. Navy, and a V-12 Program and an Army Specialized Training Program (A.S.T.P.) were instituted on-campus to insure a steady flow of university-trained men for army needs. Three hundred and twenty men from the Medical and Dental Schools joined the A.S.T.P. program alone.

The number of Marquette students who served with the armed forces is estimated at 5,735. Of these, 65 were killed in action or in the line of duty, 23 were reported missing, and 340 received good conduct medals.

Scope and Content: From 1942-1946, Sergeant John and Priscilla Holloway exchanged more than 1,300 letters. John wrote about the boredom of military life, racial segregation in the South, and made frequent references to Marquette and Milwaukee. Priscilla's letters provide important documentation of the Milwaukee homefront. A staunch political conservative, her letters frequently address local, national, and international events. In her 750 letters, she describes planned blackouts during the summer of 1942; Christmas eve at Gesu Church; the reaction of Milwaukee residents to news of the atomic blasts at Nagasaki and Hiroshima; and the electric atmosphere on Wisconsin Avenue on the evening of V-J Day. Both writers were in their early 30s during the war, and the letters reflect their maturity and deep religious faith.

In addition to the correspondence, the collection contains photographs, negatives, newspaper clippings, playbills, and ephemera.

Arrangement: The collection is arranged in two series: the John L. Holloway Papers and the Priscilla M. Holloway Papers. Correspondence constitutes the bulk of the papers within each series. Both sets of correspondence are arranged as incoming, outgoing, and third-party. Correspondents are listed alphabetically within each series.

Priscilla numbered most of her outgoing correspondence to John. The numbering begins with her December 18, 1942 letter and ends with her September 25, 1945 letter. John also numbered most of his letters to Priscilla, although with less consistency. He began one sequence of numbered letters in December 1942. On February 2, 1943 he abandoned that sequence and began a second one that he maintained for only a short time. On February 28, 1943, he began a third sequence that he continued until November 2, 1945. Within these separate sequences, some numbers are skipped or repeated, and some letters are unnumbered. Despite these inconsistencies, Priscilla often used these numbers to refer to John's letters. Number spans have been noted in the descriptive inventories.

Other Collections with World War II Content Held by the Marquette University Archives:

Alumni Papers. Robert W. Engbring, 1918-2001. Papers, 1939-1943. (Record group B-5.4, series 2-RWE). Robert W. Engbring attended Marquette from 1938-1941 and graduated with a bachelor's of philosophy in Journalism. The collection consists of scrapbooks containing World War II-related newspaper clippings, war magazines, and miscellaneous publications. These items were likely assembled by Engbring for a Journalism class.

Alumni Papers. Small Collections. Charles W. (Carl) Schuette, 1922-1975. Letter, 1944. (Record group B-5.4, series 2). Charles Schuette entered Marquette in 1941, withdrew to join the military during the war, and graduated with a bachelor's of philosophy in 1948. He was a member of the Green Bay Packers in the early 1950s. Schuette wrote this letter while serving as a Marine in the South Pacific.

History Department. Rev. Gerald P. Brennan, S.J., 1899-1979. Papers, 1940-1945. (Record group C-1.7, series 2-GPB). Rev. Brennan became a member of Marquette's History Department in 1937. He was appointed the Journalism Regent in 1939 and remained in the post until 1967, when he retired and became associate history professor. This collection consists of Brennan's correspondence with former Marquette students who joined the military during World War II.

Military Training. Rev. Bartholomew J. Quinn, S.J., 1939-1975. (Record group B-3, series 2.1). As coordinator of military programs at Marquette, Rev. Quinn was associated with the Naval R.O.T.C. unit since its establishment in 1940 and with the Army R.O.T.C. unit since its organization in 1951. These records contain information assembled by Quinn regarding Marquette's N.R.O.T.C. unit, 1935-1967.

Student Life Office. Administrative Subject Files. (Record group A-8.1, series 1). These files contain information and correspondence about war bond drives held on campus, 1942-1946.

Student Publications. The Marquette Tribune, 1916- . (Record group D-6, series 3). From 1941-1945, the Tribune kept the Marquette community informed about the war and its impact on the campus. The October 1, 1942 issue contained a supplement called "Das Marquetten L�genblatten" demonstrating what "might happen here if all Americans do not realize the seriousness of the fight before us."

Items were selected for digitization primarily according to content. Letters describing major World War II events or the impact of the war on the Wisconsin homefront were given priority for digitization. The full-size images are 24-bit 150 dpi JPEGs, and the thumbnail images are 24-bit 30 dpi JPEGs. Transcriptions are provided so that the contents of the letters are fully accessible to individuals using screen-reading software or having slower modem connections.

Only a handful of the 1,300 letters in the Holloway collection are included in this exhibit. Researchers are encouraged to consult the physical collection, which is open for use without restrictions. Please note that some of the Holloway letters contain references to the Japanese that were acceptable in the 1940s, but are considered offensive today. By publishing letters that contain such references, Marquette University is not endorsing the use of such epithets; it is simply providing access to an accurate representation of the historical record.

The exhibit was designed and constructed in summer 2002 with its release scheduled to coincide with Archives Week 2002. The theme of Archives Week 2002 was Wisconsin in Wartime. Archives Week celebrates the importance of original historical records of all kinds as keys to Wisconsin’s cultural heritage. It is sponsored by the Wisconsin Historical Records Advisory Board and the Wisconsin Historical Society.