A Lifelong Friendship: Waldo Peirce and Ernest Hemingway
In 1915, Harvard graduate Waldo Peirce volunteered as an ambulance driver with the American Field Service in France. After the war, Peirce went on to become an acclaimed artist with…
Archival Spotlight
highlighting exciting and unique items from the Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs
Our Friend France, 1917
The American Field Service (AFS) relied on donations from Americans in the United States to purchase ambulances during World War I. The organization created a number of promotional items and…
Presidential Election on the S.S. Waterman, 1968
AFS Participants simulated the 1968 U.S. presidential elections aboard the S.S. Waterman on their way back to Europe after spending a year in the U.S. in July 1968. After selecting…
Edward J. Kelley, 1916
On the evening of September 23, 1916, AFS volunteer ambulance driver Roswell Sanders took Edward J. Kelley, a newly-arrived volunteer, out on the road near Verdun, France. Verdun was the…
Marsh’s Marauders, 1945
This photograph shows AFS volunteer William Boardman Kinter waiting on the Kalaw Staircase for casualties in Burma in 1945. Kinter and his AFS friends referred to themselves as “Marsh’s Marauders,”…
The Enduring Legacy of Richard Nelville Hall
Richard Nelville Hall volunteered for AFS immediately after graduating from Dartmouth College in 1915. In a letter to his parents, he stated that “the greatest inducement to going over [to…
AFSers at the Washington Monument, 1978
In 1978, the AFS students hosted in the United States converged on the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. the day before their Departure Day. More than 1,000 students, chaperones, and…
From AFS to the Lafayette Escadrille
After a recent renovation, the Lafayette Escadrille Memorial was rededicated on April 20, 2016 in the presence of dignitaries from France and the United States. The famed Escadrille Américaine (Lafayette…
My Grandfather, the Pacifist
Conrad Wilson, a Quaker and conscientious objector, volunteered as an ambulance driver with the American Field Service in 1944. He spent months on the Italian front with 485 Company, and…