Missouri State Archives
Camp Crowder Photograph Collection

Introduction

Camp Crowder was a military installation named in honor of Major General Enoch H. Crowder, provost marshal of the United States during World War I and author of the 1917 Selective Service Act. The camp, located near Neosho, Missouri, was established in 1941. By 1942, the first soldiers arrived at the Signal Corps Replacement Training Center at Camp Crowder and were trained in forty different military communications specialties involving radio, radar, and telephone operation and maintenance. Aside from the Signal-Corps training, the post trained medical-corps soldiers and ground-force troops, and also established an Officer Candidate Preparatory School, the first school of its kind in any army installation. The camp had a bakery, ordnance motor repair shops, a large laundry and warehouses for supplies. A large prisoner of war camp existed within Camp Crowder. The mostly German POW’s worked within the larger camp, learning trade skills such as butchering, auto mechanics, baking, and laundering.

The Collection

The collection consists of 274 photographs and newspaper clippings detailing events within the camp. Highlights include portraits of then-Senator Harry S Truman, Benny Goodman, Missouri colonels and generals, and Hollywood film stars. Other photographs depict aspects of camp life, such as training drills, banquets, POWs at work, and activities within the Neosho community.

Rights and Reproductions

Copyright is in the public domain. Items reproduced for publication should carry the credit line: Courtesy of the Missouri State Archives. To order a reproduction from the archival TIFF file, inquire about permissions, or for information about prices, contact Missouri State Archives at: (573) 751-3280 or email archref@sos.mo.gov.

How to Use This Collection

The collection may be browsed in its entirety or it may be searched by title, subject, description, or date. Some categories of interest include prisoners of war, military officers, or actors.

Additional Resources

Information about Camp Crowder, Missouri, is also available in the following collections:

• Schaberg Family, Papers, 1894-1974 (C3665)
• Paul Sheldon Wise, Letters, 1942-1943 (R1255)
• Myra Himelhoch, Papers, 1926-1975 (SL688)
• U.S. Work Projects Administration, Historical Records Survey, Missouri, 1935-1942 (C3551)
• Several oral histories, as well as the papers and photographs of Frederick C. Fagan, at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum Library

For information on Major General Enoch H. Crowder, please see the following collections:

• David A. Lockmiller (1906-2005), Papers, 1880-1964 (C405) at the State Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri
• David A. Lockmiller Papers, 1916-1969 (03941) at the Southern Historical Collection, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
• Enoch H. Crowder (1859-1932), Papers, 1884-1942), (C1046)
• William M. Connor Papers (3287) at the Special Collections Department, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia
• John Dallas Langston Papers, 1842-1969 at Duke University Libraries, Durham, North Carolina
• James Harrison Wilson Papers, 1861-1923 at the Library of Congress
• Vance Criswell McCormick, 1872-1946, Papers at Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library, New Haven, Connecticut
• Martin G. Brumbaugh Papers (MG-348) at the Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

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