The collection includes a scrapbook, 1943-1945. The album begins with a group of images of Eileen’s home life at a farm in Illinois, followed by photos from her time training as a nurse at Gardiner General Hospital in Chicago, Fort Dix, New Jersey and Camp Atterbury, Indiana. The rest of the images mainly depict her time in England: the 231st hospital buildings at Morley Hall, Norfolk, nurses posing and relaxing on the hospital grounds, nurses at drill, an interior view of an orthopedic ward, parties and social events, nurses socializing with their soldier dates, sightseeing trips to Norwich, Newmarket, and Scotland, members of the 389th bomb group and other male soldiers, etc. Approximately 32 pieces of ephemera in the album relate to Hallstein’s service: a hand drawn broadside for an officers/nurses dances, a two page mimeographed song sheet printing an army nurses song (“You know it takes a lot of guts to be an army nurse/I’ve been one now for almost two months and few things could be worse”), mimeographed programs from the 231st Station Hospital for Christmas, Easter, and Mother’s Day events, travel ephemera from Scotland and Norwich, a four page mimeographed newsletter published on the Queen Elizabeth during Hallstein’s return voyage, and more. The rest of the ephemera relates to Hallstein’s time at Illinois Wesleyan College. Newspaper clippings relevant to Hallstein’s service have also been included, including a letter, published in a local newspaper, that she wrote about her time in England caring for Air Corps casualties.
