Descriptive Summary
Title: Buren James Helmick Collection
Span Dates: 1948-1952
Bulk Dates:
ID No: Ph2024-046
Creator: Buren James Helmick and Patti LaVay
Extent: 1 box
Language: English
Repository: West Virginia State Archives, Charleston, WV
Administrative Information
Provenance: Tennessee State Library and Archives, June 2024.
Transfers:
Preferred Citation: [item, collection number], Buren James Helmick Collection, West Virginia State Archives, Charleston, WV.
Processor: Meredith Barbery, October 2024
Processing Note: The photographs have been removed from the scrapbooks but kept in their original order and with the rest of the scrapbook. The adhesive was beginning to discolor the backs of the photos and the scrapbooks were beginning to disintegrate.
Conditions on Use and Access: Includes some violent imagery.
Copyright: Copyright restrictions may apply.
Sources of Information: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. T626, 2,667 rolls.
National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; Wwii Draft Registration Cards For West Virginia, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 212
West Virginia Archives and History at Charleston, WV; Raleigh County Marriages, 1952; Microfilm.
Helmick, B.J.; 1994; Vacuum release valve; 5356115; United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Find a Grave. Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi.
Historical Note: Buren James (Van) Helmick was born in Nicholas County, West Virginia in 1928. His parents were Deroy and Mary Helmick. In 1952, he married Rose Marie Brown in Beckley, WV. According to his daughter, he served in the Air Force as a photographer from 1948-1952.
After the Korean War, he went on to be an inventor holding several patents. One patent includes the Vacuum Relief Valve which is required in pumper trucks.
Helmick died December 31, 2013, in California.
Scope and Content: This collection includes photographs of post-World War II Japan and what is now South Korea during the Korean War. The photos include war photos, USO shows, civilian life, and life on base.
Related Materials:
Ms2018-006
Ms2020-103
Arrangement: The collection is arranged by which scrapbook they originally resided in and kept in original order.
Box 1
1:1 USO Show for Fifth Air Force, date unknown (19) USO, Bob Hope, civilians in Japan and Korea
1:2 Photographs of various locations in Japan, late 1940s (57) Cityscapes, aerials, airforce bases, planes, Japanese surrender, Pearl Harbor
1:3 Military and civilian photographs from Japan, late 1940s (71) Candids, both on and off base
1:4 Johnson Air Force Base, 1949 (124) On base candids, showgirls
1:5 Photographs of military and civilians in Taegu and Pusan, Korea, 1950 (123) Refugees, war, candids, military
1:6.1 Johnson Air Force Base and Tokyo, Japan, 1949 (78) Postcards, military, civilians, USO
1:6.2 Johnson Air Force Base and Tokyo, Japan, 1949 (121) Postcards, military, civilians, USO
1:7 Sensitive materials, restricted (2) These materials depict dead bodies