Scope and Content Note
The papers of Theodore Stark Wilkinson Jr. (1888-1946) span the years 1893-1971, with the bulk of the material dating from 1910 to 1945. The papers are organized in a Personal File , a Naval File , the 2022 Addition, and Oversize series covering Wilkinson’s entire naval career, especially his duties during World War II as deputy commander, South Pacific Area, and commander, Third Amphibious Force.
The Personal File consists largely of letterbooks of correspondence with family members. Correspondence received from his father, Ernest Wilkinson, and his mother, Gulielma Bostick Wilkinson, cover Wilkinson’s days at the United States Naval Academy, as do letters from other family members and friends, who sometimes address Wilkinson as Ping, Ted, or Bill. In some instances, letters were removed from the volumes prior to their arrival at the Library and are no longer part of this collection. Letters written to his wife, Catherine Harlow Wilkinson, and his mother from 1910 to 1945 recount the tedium of being at sea, the weather, naval maneuvers, social life, family matters, places visited, persons met, and his aide, Paulus P. Powell, known as “Ps.” Additional correspondence Wilkinson wrote to his wife is also found in the 2022 Addition. Topics include naval operations against the Japanese, conferences with Admiral William Frederick Halsey, interactions with allied military personnel, thoughts on the war, Japanese negotiations for peace and their surrender, his tour of duty in Japan after the surrender, and visits by Richard Evelyn Byrd, Raymond Clapper, H. v. Kaltenborn, Henry Cabot Lodge (1902-1985), Carl Mydans, Ogden R. Reid, and Eleanor Roosevelt. The Personal File is rounded out with photographs, biographical material, awards and certificates, naval insignia, printed matter, and a scrapbook kept during Wilkinson’s years at the academy.
The Naval File is largely comprised of correspondence and naval dispatches. The correspondence file kept by Wilkinson includes his personal and naval communications as well as copies of his speeches and radio addresses. Correspondents include Harold E. Barrowclough, Claude Raymond Branch, Frederick H. Brooke, Robert Bostwick Carney, Aubrey Wray Fitch, George Hudson Fort, Roy S. Geiger, O. W. Griswold, William Frederick Halsey, John R. Hodge, Royal E. Ingersoll, Randall Jacobs, James Kendall, Thomas C. Kincaid, Alan Goodrich Kirk, C. H. McMorris, Chester W. Nimitz, Lawrence F. Reifsnider, Richmond Kelly Turner, Nathan F. Twining, A. A. Vandegrift, Edward B. Whitman, Hugh M. Wilkinson, and I. Yegorichev. The dispatches include Wilkinson’s copies of naval communications in the Pacific from August 1943 until November 1945 and provide a look into the role of amphibious forces as well as a view of the naval engagements fought at Bougainville Island in the Solomon Islands and at Palau and Leyte Island in the Philippines. Of interest is the dispatch from Admiral Chester W. Nimitz to Admiral William Frederick Halsey requesting the whereabouts of Task Force 34 during the Battle of Leyte Gulf on October 25, 1944. The file is completed by a fleet exercise from 1940 and plans for the invasion of Cape Torokina on Bougainville Island in 1943.
The 2022 Addition expands upon the material within the original collection by documenting Wilkinson’s naval career and personal life, with content related to the United States Army and Navy's investigation of the events leading to the Pearl Harbor attack, and various plans of the island hopping campaign in the Pacific Theater. Of particular note are the operational plans for initial occupation of Japan after Japanese forces surrendered. The correspondence within the addition also provides more detail to Wilkinson's naval career, covering his time as a cadet at the United States Naval Academy to the conclusion of World War II in the Pacific Theater. The correspondence he wrote to his wife during his World War II service is especially noteworthy. The correspondence from friends and family written earlier in Wilkinson’s naval career includes discussion of naval assignments but focuses primarily on the social events they were pursuing.
The Oversize consists of awards, certificates, and diplomas, as well as maps and photographs removed from the plan and correspondence on the Cape Torokina invasion. Oversize also includes maps and schedules of the initial occupation plan of Japan, as well as the plans for the Allied landings at Leyte and Lingayen in the Philippines archipelago.