Papers of WWII Navy Photographer Guy Cox of USS Bunker Hill

H-War Papers of WWII Navy Photographer Guy Cox of USS Bunker Hill

Discussion published by Matthew Peek on Tuesday, June 18, 2019 Raleigh, N.C.--The State Archives of North Carolina is excited to announce the availability for public research of the papers of famed Wilson, N.C., studio photographer Guy O. Cox during his service in the U.S. Navy in World War II.

Cox served as a Navy photographer and aerial reconnaissance photographer aboard the aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) from 1943 to 1945. Many in North Carolina will know him as one of the two operators of the Raines and Cox Studio in downtown Wilson for over 60 years. While many people may know a great deal about Cox’s life after the war, few know the details of his life in the Navy in WWII. The papers cover his life and service from his days in military training from 1942 to 1943 at the NAS Pensacola's School of Photography, through the end of his Navy career in late 1945.

The bulk of the collection is composed of over 400 photographs and negatives taken or collected by Cox during his WWII military career. The photographs and negatives compose one of the largest collections of original images documenting the operations of and life aboard the Bunker Hill from late 1943 through May 1945. There are over 150 photographs taken aboard or during the service in the Pacific Theater of the ship.

The Bunker Hill is perhaps best known as the aircraft carrier seriously damaged by a Japanese kamikaze attack during the Battle of Okinawa on May 11, 1945—a photograph of which was published in a July 1945 issue of Life magazine. Included in the collection is a series of the loose and bound issues of "The Monument," the Bunker Hill’s ship newsletter from 1943 to 1945.

The Guy O. Cox Papers (WWII 165) are available for public use in the Search Room of the State Archives in Raleigh. The State Archives also holds the photograph and studio record collections of the Raines and Cox Studio. Cox’s WWII photographs are available for viewing free online through the State Archives’ Flickr page at https://bit.ly/2XKLKxN.

-Matthew M. Peek Military Collection Archivist State Archives of North Carolina

Citation: Matthew Peek. Papers of WWII Navy Photographer Guy Cox of USS Bunker Hill . H-War. 06-18-2019. https://networks.h-net.org/node/12840/discussions/4204062/papers-wwii-navy-photographer-guy-cox-uss-bunker-hill Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 1 H-War

Raleigh, N.C.