Interview with Donald M. Smith, businessman, concerning his experiences as the head of Riverside Foundry, Wrightsville, Pennsylvania, during World War II. Foundry business during the Great Depression; thoughts about Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal; conversion from peacetime to wartime production during World War II; obtaining contracts to produce hand grenades and rifle grenades; problems in procuring pig iron and other scarce materials; employment of women; technological innovations in manufacturing process; responsibilities toward the local community.

Transcript of an interview with Evelyn Myers McCune, nurse, concerning her experiences as a civilian secretary with the State Department in Washington, D.C., before the and during World War II. McCune discusses her educational background; decision to take a position with the State Department in early 1941; adjustments in moving from a town of 2,500 people to the nation's capitol; personal observations of the activities at the Japanese embassy on December 7, 1941; wartime living conditions, rationing, and transportation adjustments; social life; comments and observations of Secretary of State Cordell Hull, Japanese ambassadors Saburo Kurusu and Kichisabura Nomura, Ambassador Joseph Grew, and Eleanor Roosevelt; working with diplomatic codes; incident involving President Roosevelt's stamp collection; and her decision to join the Cadet Nurse Corps, 1944.