Archives Come Alive: Letters from poet and WWI Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae

"Archives Come Alive - Letters from poet and WWI Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae" was organized after discovering that the Bay County Public Library Local History archives has war letters from John McCrae to Eleanor Lewis spanning from 1915 - 1918. John McCrae met Eleanor Lewis on a European Tour in 1913 and corresponded until his death in 1918. McCrae's letters describe life on the battlefield, his horse Bonfire, and his appreciation of Lewis' friendship. His words to Lewis are often as poignant as his "In Flanders Fields" poem, written after the loss of his young friend in battle in 1915.

Jason Hedden performed the letters in character on August 12th at the Bay County Public Library. This performance was part of World War I and America, a two-year national initiative of Library of America presented in partnership with The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, the National World War I Museum and Memorial, and other organizations with generous support from The National Endowment for the Humanities.