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07/19/2022 04:48 PMIt was more than 80 years ago when the United States officially entered World War II, following the surprise attacks on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941. In honor of their men and women who enlisted into the American effort as part of the global conflict, the Deep River Historical Society (DRHS) unveiled an exhibit for the 416 residents who answered their country’s call.
As part of the exhibit, visitors will see photographs of a number of the veterans and workers from Deep River, accompanied by short biographies, military ranks, and responsibilities during the war.
“We wanted to recognize those World War II veterans, and those that are not with us anymore,” said Rhonda Forristall, curator of the program. “I think Deep River is a unique place in that so many of the children of these veterans are still here, and we wanted to do something to honor these veterans on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor.”
According to Forristall, all of the Deep River High School class of 1943 were enlisted in the military, with 785 Deep River families sending more than one son or daughter. Of the 416 who were enlisted, 14 of them made the ultimate sacrifice and did not return home by the war’s end. Given the collection of stories from the majority of the young men who survived combat overseas that have not been shared at Memorial Day events in the past, the DRHS wanted to feature those untold personal stories at the exhibit.
The exhibit, which opened in June, will run at the DRHS through the end of September 2023. As of now, around 100 of the 416 in total from Deep River have their photographs and stories being told alongside them. Next summer, the exhibit will be refreshed with the stories of other Deep River men not currently featured, so visitors can expand on their knowledge of their exploits in the conflict.
In one of the rooms on the first floor of the 1841 house, alongside veteran photographs, visitors of the exhibit can expect to see a variety of war artifacts and accounts either hanging up on the walls or encased in glass. Items on display include sleeping bags, artillery, gun models, and maps that show the paths soldiers took in the European and Pacific theaters of the war. Included in the array of veteran photographs is that of Henry Scudder Jr., a former Deep River resident who became the first Black American from Connecticut to be accepted into the U.S. Marine Corps. The son of a World War I veteran, Henry Scudder, members of his family still live in town.
In the adjacent room, there is a genuine 1941 Philco radio, through which a computer plays on 20 minute loop music of the 1940s, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s address to the nation of its declaration of war on the Empire of Japan. This is to give exhibit-goers an idea about what it would have been like to sit in their living rooms and hear that the country is entering a global conflict on multiple continents. For some, this experience was real and emotional, as it was for Forristall’s father.
“My father talked endlessly about how he was in the 11th grade in high school, laying on the floor on Sunday afternoon, listening to the Giants football game. Then the announcement came over about the bombing of Pearl Harbor,” she said. “It’s kind of like, ‘where were you when JFK was shot.’ It’s that kind of a thing where you’ll always remember what you were doing at this point in history.”
Since all the exhibit’s visitors were either too young to remember where they were or were not alive at the time, the section was designed to present an intimate, homey idea of hearing about the American entrance into the war.
Climbing up to the second floor of the building, visitors will encounter an iPad that will guide them through a part of the exhibit dedicated to the industrial contributions made by Pratt-Reed. Now a manufacturer of screwdrivers, the company formerly produced piano keys made out of ivory derived from elephant tusks. Like many manufacturers, as part of the industrial mobilization aspect of America’s involvement in WWII, Pratt-Reed shifted its focus away from piano keys to build Waco CG-4 aircraft. These glider planes, constructed out of fabric-covered wood and metal, first went airborne by the U.S. Army Air Forces as part of the Allied invasion of Sicily, and later participated in landings on June 6, 1944, specifically Operation Overlord, commonly known as D-Day. Along with photographs and parts of the gliders, manufactured pianos and its parts can be seen in this part of the exhibit.
According to Forristall, Pratt-Reed was the largest employer in Deep River by the U.S.’s entrance into the war, employing up to 200 workers from the tri-town area, while a number of workers traveled from London during the war to work in the factory, building the Waco planes.
To get a sense of the tight confines of the aircraft, the field outside the DRHS house has an 80 foot painted white outline of the glider, replicating the width of its wing span. This is to offer a sense of its narrow quarters that the crew and paratroopers prepared to parachute to battle grounds had to manage. The DRHS hopes that sometime this summer, they can bring a Jeep built during wartime to park within the painted lines, to see how ground transportation was kept in the compact space as well.
The exhibit is free to the public on Sunday afternoons from 1 to 4 p.m. and Thursday mornings from 10 a.m. to noon. For groups with 10 or more people wishing to visit the exhibit, arrangements can be made through the DRHS to set up a private tour.