Archives West Finding Aid

The Claude C. Hall Papers document Hall’s experiences during World War I and especially World War II, when he worked as a civilian engineer for Pacific Huts, Inc. on Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. The collection also contains a small selection of Hall’s personal papers, including a government life insurance policy, motor vehicle licenses, and a Hall Family Genealogy.

World War I Papers include recruitment, training, and classification documents. There are also clippings containing information about Hall’s call-up to Camp Lewis, regulations for drafted men, a telegram regarding illness with pneumonia, and a September 6, 1918 issue of The Highway: Official Journal of the Twenty-third Engineers. World War II Papers include business and identification cards, as well as contracts for Hall’s employment with Seattle-based Pacific Huts, Inc. Correspondence includes one letter from Pacific Huts President Frank Hobbs regarding industry and the war effort, and another letter addressed to A.H. Kinney of Colotyle Corp. in Seattle.

The collection contains a number of publications, including a copy of The Battle of the Aleutians: A Graphic History 1942-1943, written by Cpl. Dashiell Hammett and Cpl. Robert Garland Colodny and produced by the Intelligence Section, Field Force Headquarters, Adak, Alaska. There is also a 1944 limited edition of This Is The Pacific Hut, which describes the history and production of Pacific Huts and contains images of the manufacturing and testing process, employees, and use of the huts in the Aleutians. Publications also include a 1943 issue of Northwest Veteran, an American Legion newspaper published in Seattle, Washington, which contains a photo and article noting Hall’s appointment as Legion Chairman, and his role in a fund-drive to purchase and distribute playing cards to overseas soldiers.

Individual photographs and a scrapbook containing additional photographs and memorabilia document Hall’s activities in Alaska during World War II. Many of the images depict the construction and use of Pacific Huts throughout the Aleutian Islands.