Captain Roy G. Fitzsimmons: Arctic Explorer and World War II Serviceman

The Fitzsimmons Diary is a recent assession obtained by the Archives and Special Collections Center. Who was he?

LeRoy (Roy) G. Fitzsimmons was born 1915 June 1, one of ten children born to John F. (1867-1958) and Alice Brown (1873-1941) from 50 Leslie Street, Ward 16 of Newark, New Jersey. He is mostly remembered as having served on the MacGregor Arctic Expedition (1937 July 1-1938 October 4) and as a member of Richard Evelyn Byrd Jr.’s third expedition in the United States Antarctic Service Expedition (1939-1941) working in the Rockefeller Mountains where a peak bears his name.

While his name may be attached to these expeditions and even the Carnegie Institution where he was trained in magnetometry and on the operation of magnetic equipment with C.J. MacGregor in June of 1937 1 , Roy Fitzsimmons was first and foremost a Pirate of Seton Hall College who graduated in 1937 with a Bachelor of Arts in Physics.

Commencement Program from 1937 which shows Roy Fitzsimmons graduating

Much like the Seton Hall University of today that encourages students to partake in activities, Seton Hall College in the 1930s also encouraged their students to take part in student activities. The course catalog from 1937 lists:

The Student Council

The Setonian

The Dramatic Society

The College Glee Club

The Schola Cantorum

The Brownson Club

The Athletic Association

The Orchestra

The Society for the Propagation of the Faith

The Altar Society

The Press Club

The Photography Club

Catholic Activities Club

The Pre-Medical Seminar

Le Cercle Francais

The Chess Club

While this is the official listing from the 1937-1938 course catalog 6 , there was also the Chemistry Club, which shows up in the Setonian throughout the 1930s. Due to the Great Depression there was no yearbook printed between 1934-1938 which makes it difficult to fully understand the extent of student activities being offered and how Fitzsimmons might have participated.

However, the Setonian 7 was able to capture some of the student activities taking place. While the Archives and Special Collections Center does not have all the copies published during the 1930s, the ones they do have contain enlightening insights into Seton Hall during the Great Depression. According to a Setonian published on 1936 December 17, Roy Fitzsimmons participated in a theater production, Breezy Money. And in his final year as a senior he was in a one act play The Master of Solitaire according to a 1937 February 25 issue.

In another Setonian published 1937 June 2 in the Senior Who’s Who column, Roy Fitzsimmons was known as:

FROID-Has penchant for best sellers…Only $1500 between him and North Pole…The class chemist…Will be remembered as Press Agent deluxe in “Breezy Money”.

Ambition: Psychologist.

Prediction: Psycho-Analyst.

While Fitzsimmons may have not made it directly to the North Pole or became the psychologist he wanted to be or the psycho-analyst his fellow classmates predicted, he did become an arctic explorer and accompanied well known explorers on their expeditions not only into the Arctic but to Antarctica as well. His diary details one part of his expedition of the MacGregor Arctic Expedition from 1938 March 20-1938 July 31, including meteorological data for September 1937 and May 1938. Included in the pages are phantom silhouette marks of plants that once called the pages home but have long since been removed.

In an oral history facilitated by Rutgers University for the Rutgers Oral History Archives of World War II, Robert Inglis in an interview dated 1998 October 27 with G. Kurt Piechler and Michael Ojeda, talks about being a Boy Scout. He specifically talks about how during an Order of the Arrow Banquet, he approached C.J. MacGregor, who he had met previously in Wyoming, about joining MacGregor’s expedition. Inglis then states:

“It wasn’t too long afterward that I got a letter from Mr. MacGregor that if I was interested in being a Boy Scout on the expedition he would be glad to take me along. That’s how I got to go to Greenland on an Arctic expedition. I was seventeen years old, didn’t know any better. It was one of those experiences that you would pay one million for, but wouldn’t do again for $1 million” 4 .

Further on in the interview, Inglis mentions Roy Fitzsimmons setting up a magnetometer that needed to be anchored to solid rock to avoid vibrations. A magnetometer is a delicate instrument, consisting of magnets attached to mirrors suspended on threads with a light beam directed at the mirrors which then reflected onto photographic tape to record horizontal and vertical intensity of earth’s magnetic sphere 4 . Inglis remembers:

“Anytime anybody went within one fourth mile of that instrument with a rifle or anything they had to let Roy know about it, so he could compensate on his instrument” 4 .

In a different diary held at Ohio State University, Ernest Earl Lockhart describes part of the Antarctic expedition where he mentions:

“We of the biological party 7 are finding it difficult to change from the rigorous schedule we have been observing to this not so rigorous one of the base” 2

A footnote to this sentence mentions Roy Fitzsimmons as the “physicist for the seismic station” 2. Images of Fitzsimmons on this expedition can be seen in a journal article, Results of Auroral Observations at West Base, Antarctica, April to September, 1940, published in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 89, No. 1 published 1945 April 30.

In the same Setonian issue:

Remember Fitzsimmons at the Junior Prom? Miss Durin does!

Even if this is not the same Fitzsimmons, the Junior Prom was a highlight for the students. In 1936-1937 Nicholas Rosa captured some of the Seton Hall events which would later be published in the Setonian as he was the photographer on staff. Many of his photographs found their way into a scrapbook including the one of the cast of Breezy Money, where Roy Fitzsimmons comes to life with a photograph. Unfortunately, this is not the case for other graduates during 1934-1938, many of which remain faceless.

Image of the cast of Breezy Money from the Nick Rosa scrapbook

Come 1942, he joined the United States Air Force and became Captain Roy G. Fitzsimmons. He served six months in India using his meteorological knowledge in scheduling strategic bombings of industrial targets in Japan, China, and Southeast Asia using Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers 3 . Three years later on the 5th of May 1945, Captain Roy G. Fitzsimmons was killed while returning from active duty in Cuba.

Alumni Bulletin from 1945 June 11 that states the death of Captain Roy Fitzsimmons.During 1945, much of the public would have learned of Fitzsimmons death from local and national newspapers while Seton Hall alumni servicemen stationed within the United States and overseas would have learned of his death through the Seton Hall Alumni Bulletin 5 , an issue dated 1945 June 11. This newsletter connected alumni back to Seton Hall and to other alumni servicemen. One newsletter describes a Pirate who discovered a fellow Pirate stationed near them and how they made plans to meet up. With these newsletters are correspondence from servicemen to Dan McCormick and John O’Neill, the editors of the newsletter. They discuss fellow Pirates, their memories of Seton Hall, and details about the war that didn’t need to be censored.

After this there is no more mention of Captain Roy G. Fitzsimmons. However, his name will reside within the details of the collections at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Rutgers University, Ohio State University, Seton Hall University, and others.


References

11936-1937 Year Book – Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1937, by Carnegie Institution of Washington. Online: https://archive.org/details/yearbookcarne36193637carn/page/278/mode/2up?q=fitzsimmons

2Ernest Earl Lockhart’s Antarctic Journal, 25 December 1940 to 16 January 1941, n.d. Online at: https://kb.osu.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/fe6cc4ef-2ac5-5967-86dd-02e4967fcba7/content#nbiological

3Former Explorer Killed: Mass to be Said Tomorrow for Capt. Ray G. Fitzsimmons, May, 13, 1945, New York Times (1923-). Online at: https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/former-explorer-killed/docview/107092484/se-2

4Inglis, Robert Oral History Interview, October 27, 1998, by G. Kurt Piehler and Michael Ojeda, Tape #1, Rutgers Oral History Archives. Online: https://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/alphabetical-index/interviewees/30-interview-html-text/513-inglis-robert

5Office of University Advancement records, SHU-0029. The Monsignor Field Archives & Special Collection Center. https://archivesspace-library.shu.edu/repositories/2/resources/516

6Office of the Registrar records, SHU-0024. The Monsignor Field Archives & Special Collection Center. https://archivesspace-library.shu.edu/repositories/2/resources/330 

7The Setonian, SHU-0054. The Monsignor Field Archives & Special Collection Center. https://archivesspace-library.shu.edu/repositories/2/resources/524

BRINGING HISTORY TO LIFE!

image of students viewing artifact

Students in Dr. Laura Wangerin's "VIKINGS!" class discuss a replica of the Gundestrup Cauldron from the university's collections

This semester, students experienced history first-hand through object-based learning (OBL), an approach that adds value to classroom studies. In OBL, students learn via engaging in conversation and discourse using artworks, artifacts, archival materials, or digital representations of unique objects as catalysts to foster a sense of wonder, awe and curiosity. Object-based learning prioritizes critical thinking inspired by close observation to connect objects to concepts learned in the classroom.

Dr. Laura Wangerin’s “VIKINGS!” class visited the Archives and Special Collections recently to view the university’s replicas of the Gundestrup Cauldron and Book of Kells in a conversation guided by the student’s thoughts, questions and observations – relating the imagery back to what was learned through readings and coursework.  Students were taken by the scale of the work, the construction of the cauldron, and the high relief imagery which is visible 360 degrees around. Engaging objects via the senses connects students to the past while making connections to the present. Objects are powerful tools for learning, especially when students realize they are standing in the presence of an object made by people or cultures from long ago. In this sense, objects can become almost like time machines, bringing us back to pivotal moments in human or natural history.

image of a rare book

Noticias Summarias das Perseguições da missam de Cochinchina, principiada, & continuada pelos Padres da Companhia de Jesu. (OCLC #: 16077971)

In Dr. Kirsten Schultz’s course “Religion and Society in Early Latin America” students visited to see rare books published around the time of the Counter-Reformation to enhance their understanding and appreciation of the issues at stake as they discussed the role of the Church in colonial society.   Conversation centered on the adventencia pages of the “Noticias Summarias,” which served as an agreement that the book could be published. The volume is an important account of the Portuguese mission in Cochinchina and Tonkin, today’s Vietnam.

The Walsh Gallery and Archives and Special Collections care for the university’s various collections and make them available for study, research, exhibitions and related programs. Objects include materials from world cultures and span from the neolithic era to the present. Highlights of the collection include Byzantine and Greco-Roman coins and artifacts; Native American basketry, ceramics and beaded crafts along with tools and leather goods; Japanese toys and 19th century woodblock prints; 3,000-year-old Chinese ceramics and metalwork; contemporary Chinese art; 17th and 18th century European engravings; and documents dating to the founding of the Newark Diocese and Seton Hall College. There are also significant collections from New Jersey politicians such as Brendan Byrne – the state’s 47th governor and Donald M. Payne, New Jersey’s U.S. representative who served the 10th congressional district from 1989 until his death in 2012.

A portion of the university’s collections can be viewed on Google Arts and Culture and you can view scholar Dr. Caterina Agostini’s recent digital exhibition, “Currency Culture” which uses coins from the Ron D’Argenio Collection of Coins and Antiquities to discuss notions of power and politics as conveyed on minted coins from the Byzantine and Roman Empires.

Dr. Caterina Agostini presents her research on coinage
Dr. Caterina Agostini, D’Argenio Fellow at Seton Hall University presents her research on the university’s collection of coins to students in the Italian Studies Program.

Those interested in viewing the Gundestrup Cauldron can view it through the end of the semester on the first floor of the Walsh Library in the display windows outside the Archives and Special Collections. If you would like to make an appointment to use the collections for research, class visits or other scholarly pursuits, please contact us.  We would love to hear about your projects and how we can work together to illustrate your ideas!

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The Walsh Gallery has a considerable collection of fine art, artifacts and archeological specimens for use by faculty, students and researchers. For access to this or other objects in our collections, contact us at 973-275-2033 or walshgallery@shu.edu to make a research appointment. Now on view in the Walsh Gallery:  Seton Hall Re/Collects through Friday, December 9th. The gallery is located on the 1st floor of the Walsh Library and is open Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm. Groups of 8 or more must make an appointment prior to visiting. 


	

Msgr. William Noé Field Archives and Special Collections Center Commemorates the Centenary of World War I

Teaser exhibit of WWI materials at the Archives and Special Collections Center, case 2.
Teaser exhibit of WWI materials at the Archives and Special Collections Center, case 2.

On 28 June, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary, and his wife, Duchess Sophia, were assassinated by a Bosnian Serb, setting in motion the events that would erupt into what became known as the Great War, the War to End all Wars, World War I.  As we know, it did not end all war, but as commemorations take place over the next year to remember the 100th anniversary, we will be adding our commemoration by means of an exhibit in the Msgr. William Noé Field Archives and Special Collections Center, ground floor, Walsh Library.

Teaser exhibit of WWI materials at the Archives and Special Collections Center, case 1.
Teaser exhibit of WWI materials at the Archives and Special Collections Center, case 1.

We begin with items that refer to two famous pilots – the Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen (2 May 1892 – 21 April 1918), and The American Ace of Aces, Eddie Rickenbacker, (October 8, 1890 – July 27, 1973).

Teaser exhibit of WWI materials at the Archives and Special Collections Center.
Teaser exhibit of WWI materials at the Archives and Special Collections Center.

Then in August, we will present three installments over nine months combining models, dioramas, figures and prints with archival material to commemorate the inception of the Great War.

The first installment, running from 1 August through 31 October, 2014, includes figures of the assassinations of the Archduke and his wife, a British trench and armored car, maps of Europe at the beginning of the War and of the Schleiffen Plan, illustrations of French and German uniforms, and figures representing the Galipoli Campaign which began 15 April 1915.  Poems by writers including Clinton Scollard, Katharine Tynan, Rupert Brooke, Josephine Burr, G. K. Chesterton, John Drinkwater, Violet Gillespie, Corporal Malcolm C. Murray and Joyce Kilmer, along with plates from rare volumes of the time, will amplify these exhibits.

Second, from 1 November 2014 to 31 January 2015 we will show models of British, French and German artillery, the Red Baron’s ACE01 Fokker DR1, Eddie Rickenbacker’s Sopwith Camel, as well as other planes, tanks and armored cars paired with archival memories of the time.

Last, from 1 February – 30 April 2015 we will show a map of Europe after the War, British and German foot soldiers, a regimental aid post where care was provided to the wounded, women in the war, T. E. Lawrence and the Arab Revolt, along with poems and depictions of uniforms.

Please come to enjoy the evolution of our exhibit.

150th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation: Civil War materials in the Archives and Special Collections Center

150 years ago, the country was deeply embroiled in war. The American Civil War began when seven Southern states (South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas) seceded from the Union. After fighting began in April of 1861, four more Southern states (Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina) joined the Confederate States of America in fighting the United States of America, leading to the bloodiest conflict in American history. The issue of slavery was at the heart of Southern secession, driving questions of states’ rights verses federal rights and the vast economic differences between North and South. Ultimately, the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States on a platform that emphasized abolitionist politics literally divided the nation.

On 22 September 1862, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing enslaved people in the Confederate States. This did not officially end slavery by law (the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution did that, in 1865), but it was an important first step that emphasized ending slavery as a goal of the war and freed enslaved people in the Confederacy as the Union Army advanced. After four horrific years of fighting, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant on 9 April, 1865. The war ended and the Confederacy dissolved; slavery had ended. But there yet remained a long struggle for economic recovery in the South, and although slavery was now officially over, African Americans were denied equal rights and the protection of the law in most of the country. Issues of civil rights and race relations, as well as how this nation governs itself, continue to be debated, and the events and politics of the Civil War still shape our world today.

In the Monsignor William Noe Field Archives and Special Collections Center, we have several collections that deal directly or indirectly with the history of the Civil War. Highlighted below are Rare Book materials, the Seton Jevons family papers, the Salt family letters, and the Confederate States of America Treasury bond.

Four book collections, totaling almost 2,500 volumes, focus on secondary sources analyzing and interpreting the conflict, its causes, its characters, and its impact. The Reverent Pierce Byrne Civil War collection, the Gerald Murphy Civil War collection, and the Schoch Family Civil War collection include numerous books on a wide variety of Civil War topics, while the Julius C. Landeheim Lincoln collection includes books and print materials on the 16th President.

Several note-worthy books from the period immediately following the war are in these collections, including John Abbott’s The history of the Civil War in America and Joel Headley’s The great rebellion; a history of the civil war in the United States, both published in 1866. The Byrne collection includes multiple issues of Harper’s Weekly, which gave detailed accounts of the battles and events of the war, often accompanied by woodcut illustrations. The Gerald Murphy collection includes a medal bearing the likeness of Ulysses S. Grant and a facsimile of the original document commonly known as the Treaty of Appomattox, written by Ulysses S. Grant on 9 April 1865 and detailing the terms of the surrender of Robert E. Lee. The Landeheim collection includes early Lincoln biographies by Ward Lamon, Life of Abraham Lincoln from 1872, and William Henry Herndon and Jesse William Weik, Herndon’s Lincoln from 1889.

The Seton Jevons family papers is an extensive collection of archival material including family letters discussing the Civil War and its impact. Two Seton brothers, William Seton, Jr. and Henry Seton, both grand-children of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, fought in the Civil War on the Union side. William Seton, Jr. was a captain in the 4th New York Volunteers and Henry was also a captain. The collection includes correspondence between William Seton, Jr. and his parents and sisters during the war, as well as letters between two members of the Jevons family, Thomas and William, who lived in England at the time. Thomas Jevons later married Isabel Seton, sister to William Jr. and Henry and another grandchild of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. In the correspondence of the Seton brothers, William Jr. and Henry, there are notes and letters from enlisted men and fellow officers requesting leave or discussing business, as well as from each other and family members. William Jr. was injured in combat in 1862, and several letters refer to the effects of this injury. The Jevons brothers, William Stanley and Thomas, were living in England but wrote frequently to each other and discussed the events in America as news of the day. They had differing opinions on the possible outcome of the war, and neither seemed to think very highly of the United States government in general: William S. wrote in a letter dated 5 August 1861, possibly reacting to news of the Battle of Bull Run, “I had no doubt and do not now doubt that the North have the physical power sufficient to win ultimately, but it might take ten years or so, something in the style of English wars, and you may judge what chance there is of Yankees remaining of one mind for 10 years.” Six months later, on 12 February 1862, Henry wrote, “… though I think that we have hardly realized what a blow the rebellion is to the Northerners, yet I cannot but believe it is a lesson that will do them immense good, and that instead of one immoral badly governed country, we may within the next fifty years have two tolerably respectable communities.” While they both turned out to be incorrect in the details of their predictions, their opinions offer unique insight into foreign perspectives on the war. Several of these letters are in the process of being digitized, while some images from the collection are already online, including this photograph that includes Thomas E. Jevons and Isabel Seton Jevons.

A newly processed collection of family letters, the Salt family letters, gives a different first-hand look at life during the Civil War. William Salt, Jr. was teaching school in an Army fort in Arkansas at the outbreak of the conflict, and he wrote his sister to describe the events surrounding the transfer of the fort from Union to Confederate control. We know that Salt, a New York native who later became Father William Salt, a teacher and administrator at Seton Hall College, was conscripted into the Confederate Army and served for some time before making his way home to family in New York on foot; the collection of letters does not directly document this period of his life, but the letters describing Arkansas at the start of the war are detailed. Other members of the family, living primarily in New York at the time, discuss life continuing on despite the conflict, and mention in passing history-altering events. A cousin of the Salts, Elinor Gustin, comments at the end of one letter full of family updates, including where several male relatives are stationed: “These are awful times, who of us ever expected to see such a state of affairs in our once glorious country.” She then mentions the “great excitement” caused by the Emancipation Proclamation before calmly reminding her cousin to write back. Several of these letters (but by no means all) have been digitized, and while the majority of the collection dates from the post-war years, these first-hand accounts of life during the war paint sharply different pictures of North and South.

Another unique item dating from the Civil War is the Confederate Treasury bond, discovered at Seton Hall in 2003. The bond was issued by the Confederate Treasury in February 1864, one of the last group of bonds to be issued by the increasingly desperate Confederate government as it attempted everything possible to continue funding a war that was going very badly. Issued for $1,000, the bond was for a period of thirty years and would have allowed the collection of thirty dollars ($30) in interest every six months. Interestingly, the first two interest coupons are missing, suggesting that whoever purchased the bond was living in the South at the time. The exact provenance of the bond is unknown, but was discovered in a safe in the Office of the President; given that it seems extremely unlikely that the President of Seton Hall College (Reverend Bernard J. McQuaid was President from 1859-1868) would or could have purchased the bond, it was most likely stored there for safe-keeping years later, before the Archives were formed, and then forgotten. This item has not yet been digitized.

Of course, even the items listed here have more information to share, and there is plenty of additional material to explore in the Archives. After 150 years, there is still a great deal to learn about and from the Civil War and how it has shaped our nation. To start your exploration, email us, call us, or make an appointment to view materials in person. And don’t forget to check out the ever-growing Digital Archives and Special Collections Center!