Bookmark this page or copy and paste URL to Email message

Forrest E. Doucette Photographs 1923-1931

CP SPC 94

Biographical Note

Forrest Ernest Doucette was born to Ernest and Electa (Fearing) Doucette on May 16, 1894 in Little Falls, Minnesota and raised in Detroit, Michigan. He worked for a weekly newspaper before he enlisted for service in World War I. Doucette was injured in a mustard gas attack during the war and was treated at Aberdeen Hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota after his discharge. While at Aberdeen he continued his career as a journalist, contributing articles to the hospital's patient newsletter. In 1923 he was transferred to the Veterans Hospital at Whipple Barracks near Prescott, Arizona to aid the recovery of his lungs. There, he served as editor of the Whipple Echo, a leading publication for veterans.

Doucette returned to Minnesota in 1925, but when the cold weather exacerbated his war injury he returned to Arizona for the mild, dry climate, entering the Pastime Park Veterans Hospital in Tucson in 1927. After his release in 1928, he took a job in Clifton, Arizona. In 1929 he moved to Phoenix, where he was the editor of the Arizona Yearbook. Doucette married Ferna Dail (1904-1990) in about 1930 and the couple had one son, Dail Dewitt (1931-). The family moved to Ontario, California in about 1938, where Doucette owned and operated a newspaper until selling his business after World War II. Forrest Doucette died on June 15, 1989 in San Bernadino, California.

Scope and Content Note

The Forrest E. Doucette Photographs include personal photographs, clippings of Doucette's newspaper articles, and associated ephemera documenting Doucette's recovery from a World War I mustard gas injury and his career as a journalist in Arizona. The photographs show his stay at the United States Veterans Administration Aberdeen Hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota (1923); his residence at the Veterans Hospital at Whipple Barracks near Prescott, Arizona and his work for the patient newsletter, the Whipple Echo (1923-1924); his return to his home to Duluth, Michigan (1925); his stay at Veterans Administration Pastime Park Hospital in Tucson (1927); and his career as a journalist in Arizona (1928-circa 1932).

Among these images are snapshots of Doucette, friends, and hospital staff, many of whom worked on the hospital newspapers with him. One group of images records the filming of a motion picture starring Tom Mix and June Marlowe near Prescott, Arizona. A large number of photographs were made on automobile tours through Arizona. Doucette made two of the trips with J. L. Baker in a Chrysler roadster through Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and California for the Arizona Republican (now the Arizona Republic) to inspect and report on road conditions. These images are accompanied by clippings from the paper.

Arrangement

Restrictions

Access Restrictions

To view this collection, make an appointment at least five business days prior to your visit by contacting Ask an Archivist or calling (480) 965-4932. Appointments in the Wurzburger Reading Room at Hayden Library (rm. 138) on the Tempe campus are available Monday through Friday. Check the ASU Library Hours page for current availability.

Copyright

Arizona State University does not own the copyright to this collection. We recognize that it is incumbent upon the researcher to procure permission to publish information from this collection from the owner of the copyright.

Photographs from this collection may not be reproduced, published, or exhibited without the advanced, written permission of the Department of Archives and Special Collections. This permission is required in addition to any copyright permission described above.

Related Material

See also the unprocessed Forrest Doucette Papers at Arizona State University.

Access Terms

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Forrest E. Doucette Photographs, CP SPC 94, Arizona State University Library.

Provenance

Forrest E. Doucette donated these photographs to Archives and Special Collections in 1984 (ACC #84-096).

Processing Note

The photographs in these four albums are arranged roughly chronological in order. The photographs have been withdrawn from the albums for preservation when possible; photographs which could not be withdrawn as well as newsclippings remain in the original albums. Prints are numbered and stored in their original order; the album pages are marked to indicate the prints' original placement.

Other Finding Aids

Some photographs from this collection have been individually cataloged in ASU's Special Materials Index. These images can be found by searching the index for "Doucette."

Container List