BYRL E. SYLVESTER:
An Inventory of His Papers at the Minnesota Historical Society
Manuscripts Collection
OVERVIEW
| Creator: | Sylvester, Byrl E. (Byrl Edwin), 1892-1918, creator. | |
| Title: | Byrl E. Sylvester papers, | |
| Dates: | 1909-1921 (bulk 1917-1918). | |
| Abstract: | Letters, news clippings, and other papers of a soldier from Plainview, Minnesota, documenting his service as a volunteer Red Cross ambulance driver in France during World War I and the airplane accident that claimed his life while training in Florida to become a Navy pilot. | |
| Quantity: | 0.3 cubic feet (1 box). | |
| Location: | See Detailed Description section for shelf location. |
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Byrl Edwin Sylvester was born at Plainview, Minnesota on October 19, 1892 to Edwin L. and Hettie L. (Dillon) Sylvester. He graduated from Plainview High School in 1914, and attended the University of Minnesota for three years before leaving to work in the Plainview State Bank, of which his father was president.
Sylvester joined the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps, a unit of the American Red Cross, on April 24, 1917. He left for service in France in May 1917, where he worked as an ambulance driver until he was wounded on September 12, 1917. He was subsequently decorated with the French Croix de Guerre (Cross of War) for his hard work and bravery.
Sylvester returned to Minnesota after his recovery as something of a local war hero, and gave several speeches in southeastern Minnesota in support of the war effort. In November he enlisted in the Naval Aviation Corps, and on December 1 began a 3-month course at Dunwoody Institute, Minneapolis, as a part of this program. He next went on to the Boston School of Technology to study aviation, and then was transferred to the Naval Air Station at Pensacola, Florida, to complete his training. Sylvester was killed in an airplane collision while training over Pensacola Bay on June 19, 1918. His body was returned to Plainview, where funeral services were conducted and he was interred.
Sylvester was survived by his parents, brothers Park D. and Edwin L., Jr., and sisters Nettie Caldwell and Meta Holmes.
SCOPE AND CONTENTS
The collection consists mainly of newspaper clippings and letters and picture postcards sent home by Sylvester to his parents. There are also a few photographs, some items relating to the University of Minnesota, and miscellaneous papers.
The materials comprising this collection were originally in a scrapbook that was disassembled for conservation reasons.
ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
Availability:
The collection is open for research use.
Preferred Citation:
[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Byrl E. Sylvester Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.
See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.
Accession Information:
Accession number: 15,419
Processing Information:
Processed by: David B. Peterson, May 1999
Catalog ID number: 990017356200104294
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
| Box | |||||||||||
| P2337 | 1 | Clippings, 1917-1918. | |||||||||
| Include letters written by Sylvester to his parents from France relating his experiences there; newspaper accounts of his injuries and his receipt of the Croix de Guerre; stories about his return to Plainview and his subsequent speaking engagements; and news accounts of his death in Florida and his funeral in Plainview. | |||||||||||
| Letters and postcards, May-Oct. 1917. 2 folders. | |||||||||||
| Pertain to Sylvester's travel to France and his service on the French war front. | |||||||||||
| Letters and postcards, 1918. | |||||||||||
| Pertain to Sylvester's training to become a pilot. | |||||||||||
| Photographs, 1917. | |||||||||||
| Includes a passport photo of Sylvester (1917), a picture apparently taken of Sylvester at the time of his service in France with the ambulance corps, and a photograph of Sylvester and 11 other members of the A and A. S. Rite -Winona Consistory No. 4 (1917). | |||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||
| P2337 | 1 | University of Minnesota, 1909, 1919. | |||||||||
| Includes a 1909 College of Medicine and Surgery commencement program listing Sylvester's brother-in-law James Phaon Caldwell among the graduates, and a program from a 1919 Memorial Convocation held in honor of University men who died in the first world war. | |||||||||||
| Miscellaneous papers, undated and 1917-1921. | |||||||||||
| Includes a letter from the American Red Cross certifying that Sylvester had served with them in France and that he had left after being wounded (1917), a record sheet pertaining to Sylvester's hospitalization in France (1917), a program from a Memorial Day observance held at the U.S. Naval Air Station at Pensacola (1919), and information about the dedication of a plaque memorializing members of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity who died in World War I (1921). | |||||||||||
CATALOG HEADINGS
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.
- Topics:
- Aircraft accidents -- Florida.
- Ambulance service -- France.
- Croix de guerre (France).
- Military education -- United States.
- Military decorations -- France.
- Transport of sick and wounded -- France.
- Volunteer workers in ambulance service -- France.
- World War, 1914-1918 -- War work -- France.
- Places:
- Pensacola Bay (Fla.).
- Plainview (Minn.).
- Persons:
- Sylvester, E. L. (Edwin L.), 1859-.
- Organizations:
- American Red Cross.
- Naval Air Station Pensacola (Fla.).
- Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps.
- Scottish Rite (Masonic order). Winona Consistory No. 4.
- United States. Navy -- Aviation.
- Types of Documentation:
- Postcards.
- Occupations:
- Air pilots.
- Ambulance drivers -- France.
- Soldiers -- Untied States.
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