AGRS workers loading a casket into a hearse, Chicago, 1948

Gift of Jeannie Brennan
Description: 

Photograph. African American American Graves Registration Service workers loading a casket into a hearse; a United States Marine is standing at attention near the hearse in the foreground. Presumably Chicago, Illinois. 1948

Image Information

Accession Number: 
Date: 
1948
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Collection Level: 
Items from the service of Lieutenant Colonel Carroll Grinnell, who served in the American Graves Registration Service and oversaw "the receipt, storage and delivery of deceased military personnel to the next of kin" during and after World War II. Carroll “Jimmy” James Grinnell was born on 31 January 1893 in Brownville, New York. He joined the United States Army on 13 November 1913 and was sent to France during World War I. He was honorably discharged on 18 April 1920, but continued to serve in the Reserves. Grinnell graduated with a degree in Engineering in 1927 and was a barracks construction engineer supervisor for the United States Army until he was called to active duty on 19 November 1940. On 22 August 1941, he was sent to Newfoundland, Canada, and returned to the United States on 5 April 1944. He was then assigned to the United States Army Pacific (USARPAC) and sent to oversee the commissary at Schofield Barracks, Oahu, Hawaii, on 21 March 1945. He returned to the United States in late October and began his work at the American Graves Registration Distribution Center No. 8 in Chicago, Illinois. Around 1948, he was then reassigned to a Distribution Center in Schenectady, New York, where he remained until his honorable discharge on 15 August 1949. Grinnell remained in the state of New York for the rest of his life, dying on 8 April 1967 in Sackets Harbor. The collection includes photographs, military orders, and personnel records.
Geography: 
Chicago
Latitude: 
41.850
Longitude: 
-87.650
Thesaurus for Graphic Materials: 
Marines (Military personnel)--American--United States--Illinois
Soldiers' bodies, Disposition of--American--United States--Illinois
Funeral rites & ceremonies--Illinois
Integration--Illinois