World War I Diary: 100 Years Ago

What a wonderful gift! The staff of the Bridgeport History Center got an idea.  One hundred years ago, World War I started.   We wanted to do an exhibit.  Just after the initial thought, the phone rang.

I answered and heard the voice of Vincent Keating.  “Would you be interested in a diary and other things from World War I?”

“Would I?”  The answer was “YES!!!”

The Connecticut Post came into the library, and writer Frank Juliano and photographer Autumn Driscoll helped me document the occasion.  The scrapbooks, photographs and daily account of a young Bridgeport soldier in World War I is priceless.  The soldier was Vincent Keating, the father of Vincent Keating, Jr.

The items cannot be handled, but they will be on display and carefully transcribed.  After all, the diary made it from a young soldier’s bag across war torn Europe and back to Bridgeport.  We need to treat it with care!

Mary Witkowski

Mary K. Witkowski is the former Bridgeport City Historian and the Department Head of the Bridgeport History Center, Emeritus. She is the author of Bridgeport at Work, and the co-author with Bruce Williams of Bridgeport on the Sound. Mary has had a newspaper column in the Bridgeport News, a blog for the Connecticut Post, and a weekly spot on WICC. She continues to be involved in many community based activities and initiatives on local history and historic preservation.