Prior to, but especially during World War II, mothers, girlfriends, sisters, and others created clipping books or scrapbooks to document not only what was happening with their service member, but also their local communities. These books served to not only document daily life, but preserve the memories for the future. Today you may discover these treasures at antique shops, within genealogy or historical society archives, military museums, the National Archives, and many other repositories.
Scrapbooks typically held clipped items like newspaper articles, pages or images from books or brochures, church bulletins, award certificates, and other daily life documents. They also usually included letters from the service member, V-Mail, cards, postcards, and photos. These were often glued to a scrapbook page. William’s mother Gertie created a Clipping Book for the family which contains newspaper articles and other information about William’s early life and service in World War II.
On this page we share a selection of the pages from Nita’s Scrapbook. Please be sure to explore Gertie’s Clipping Book for a glimpse into more of William’s family history.
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© 2026 William B. Riley and Rachel M. Riley