Scope and Contents

The collection consists of two main parts:

[A] "Written and Pictorial Diary / Service Prior to and During / World War / With / 71st New York Infantry / 105th Infantry / 102nd Engineers / 27th Division, U.S.A. / Eric G. Lindquist 1915-1919."

[B] An untitled, undated, typescript memoir.

In the "Written and Pictorial Diary" [A], Lindquist has interspersed pages of calligraphic text with captioned photographs of himself, fellow servicemen, officers, camps, and equipment, taken while stationed at McAllen, Texas, during the border skirmishes of the Mexican Revolution; at Camp Wadsworth, Spartanburg, South Carolina, before shipping to Europe; and in various locations throughout Belgium, France, and England during World War I.

Tipped inside the "Written and Pictorial Diary" were two newspaper clippings (dated 1960 and 1961), a scrapbook page of sewn-on service medals and Lindquist's dog tag, and his pocket diary for 1918 (originally a printed diary for 1916, Lindquist filled it two years later). For ease of access, these items are now filed separately but retain their original position at the front of the diary proper. (See the container list descriptions for Box 1, Folders 1–3.)

Lindquist's typescript memoir [B], which runs to 502 pages, is based on his "Written and Pictorial Diary" of 1915-1919, and his pocket diary of 1918, which he describes in the "Forward" [sic] as "a tiny book of not more than three inches in length containing a record of the most minute incidents. The writing was accomplished with a delicate pencil of no greater weight than a slender reed." Indeed, the minuscule script requires magnification to be legible. (See Box 1, Folder 3.)

The memoir runs to 24 chapters with titles like "First Call to Arms" (chapter 2), "Nights of Hell at Mount Scherpenberg" (chapter 15), and "A Colonel Goes Berserk" (chapter 22). It includes two hand-drawn maps signed "E.G.L": "The Mount Kemmel Battle Area" (Box 2, Folder 5, following page 351), and "Hindenburg Line at St. Quentin Canal Tunnel" (Box 2, Folder 5, following page 393).