Alvin P. Yorkunas Collection
The Yorkunas collection chronicles the weekly – sometimes daily – correspondence between Tampa commercial artist Alvin P. Yorkunas and his wife, Mary Anne. An accomplished artist, Yorkunas often illustrated his letters and envelopes with images drawn from both his personal life and military experiences. These letters give a rare and often humorous insight into the daily life of an early Tampa resident, his drawings from abroad and his memories of home.
The collection includes correspondence, personal journals, military documents, postcards, photographs, artwork, printed ephemera, and realia. The bulk of the collection relates to Alvin P. Yorkunas’ service in the Army Air Forces during World War II (1942-1946) and with the Air Force’s Strategic Air Command (1951-1954). Materials relating to his pre-war and post-war life in Tampa, Florida are also present. The heart of the collection consists of approximately 650 letters written by Yorkunas to his wife Mary Ann during World War II and a 115-page illustrated daily journal Yorkunas kept while stationed on Saipan and Guam from October, 1944 to March, 1945.
This digital collection is a sampling of the Yorkunas materials. For a complete listing of the collection’s contents, please see the finding aid.
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Sportesques
Alivin P. Yorkunas
Illustrated sports trivia, similar in format to contemporary "Ripley's Believe It or Not" newspaper feature. Text by E. G. "Ted" Hirons Jr. and drawings by Yorkunas working as "Al York,", 1942-1946.
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Wish You Were Here, 1944-45
Alvin P. Yorkunas
When Yorkunas was stationed on the Marianas Islands in 1944, military censors believed coded messages could be contained inside his letters home to his wife. This led him to start “Wish You Were Here,” a daily journal in which he documented his life on Saipan and Guam with elaborate sketches and short prose descriptions.
