(WORLD WAR ONE) Letters and diary of a young salesman who sp

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(WORLD WAR ONE.) Letters and diary of a young salesman who spent 18 months in Europe at the outset of the war. 55 items (0.4 linear feet); minor wear. Various places, 1914-1917

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Russell Bridgeman Rochford (1892-1965) of Springfield, MA had a very specialized occupation: he was a tractor tester and demonstrator for Knox Motors, as recorded in his draft registration and demonstrated in these papers. In December 1914, months after the first German assault, he departed for Europe to demonstrate his company's tractors for buyers in England and France. His potential customers were both military and commercial. This archive may be of interest for the engineering minutiae of Rochford's automotive work--or it may be of interest for his observant descriptions of England and France during wartime, years before other Americans were on the scene in any significant number.

Rochford's 60-page diary, in fine condition except for a bit of dampstaining, was kept from December 1914 to July 1916, spanning his entire trip to Europe. On arriving in Le Havre, he noticed that "Streets were full of English and French soldiers. Some had one leg, some one arm, and more or less limped" (30 December 1914). He describes wrecked German gear displayed as trophies in shop windows, numerous widows in the streets, and prisoners passing through. In London he "heard explosions and then gun firing. Saw Zeppelin dropping bombs. Search lights showed up zeppelin quite plain. Saw shells bursting all around it. 11 o'clock at night. Then saw several large fires caused by it" (8 September 1915), and later "saw trainloads of wounded soldiers come into Charing-Cross Station from France" (21 June 1916). Amidst the second-hand horrors of war and the thrill of tourism, he also records his tractor demonstrations in careful detail for audiences ranging from military officers to gun manufacturers. He returned home on the Carpathia, the ship which had rescued many of the Titanic passengers just four years before.

Also included are 15 letters from Rochford to his mother during his 1914-1916 European trip. In Havre on 30 December 1914, he wrote that at a restaurant he "asked for a chicken sandwich, and they said they weren't allowed to sell any more chicken, as it all went to the soldiers." His 13 May 1914 explains Knox's dubious marketing strategy: to "demonstrate the three-wheeled machine, and not mention the four-wheeler until they dumped what three-wheelers they have in stock on the French government. . . . When they were told about the four-wheeler, they wanted to see one before they would buy a damn machine of any kind." On 18 October 1915 he describes a zeppelin raid on London.

A folder of Rochford's European ephemera includes programs from the shipboard entertainments on his steamer; a red and blue broadside for a "French National Fete Day" at Hyde Park staged by the Anglo-French Fraternity; two volumes of "Fragments from France" cartoons; an issue of the Cunard Daily Bulletin with war news printed aboard the Carpathia, 24 July 1916; and more.

After returning home, Rochford then joined the Army. This collection includes two long letters he wrote from training camp, postmarked Lawton, OK, December 1917. Nine small snapshots depict his camp. A large panorama photograph by Marcell and Stithem is titled "Birdseye View of Fort Sill and Camp Doniphan," 8 x 40 inches (rolled, with moderate wear, better than most rolled panoramas). It bears Rochford's pencil annotations: "Our camp," "Our Y.M.C.A.," "Rifle range." No other examples of this camp image have been traced at auction or in OCLC.