The Francis Xavier Bufka collection is arranged into two series: Personal Materials and Service Materials.
Personal Materials (1917-2001) Includes all materials produced by or about Bufka from his time outside the military. There are many papers from his childhood, such as greeting cards given to him and various school papers. The focus of these materials are Bufka's diary and letters to Joan Wavnig, which both describe his adjustment to civilian life and living at home.
Still images in the Personal Materials series include childhood photographs of Bufka and personal photographs sent to him by friends and family. These people include Joan Wanvig, Bruce Laurie, and Joseph and Edna Gehringer. Color slides contain images from New York City, and a homecoming parade for Douglas MacArthur.
Service Materials (1941-1950) include many kinds of papers and photographs from Bufka's service in the military. Several diaries cover his time from enlistment, training around the United States, furloughs, and his time spent overseas in Japan. Entries are generally short and cover daily activities and observations. Ephemera from this time include his graduation program from rifelry school, a menu from a hotel in Japan and several souvenir postcards. Information for new camp arrivals at Camp Cullen is a small packet of information. Japanese language materials are written primarily in Japanese and appear to be somewhat educational or instructional.
Correspondence are arranged by sender to Bufka and recipient from Bufka. Bufka received letters from his aunts Lillie, Estelle, Edna, his cousin Barbara and his mother. Correspondence also includes several cards sent to him by members of his family for birthdays and holidays.
Letters Bufka wrote are all to his close friend, Joan Wanvig. Bufka's letters to Joan describe his life in the military in great detail. He expresses frustration with the military and describes in great detail his exploration of the Japanese islands.
Still images include photographs, slides and negatives. Photographs are arranged chronologically by those taken in the United States and in the Pacific theater, then alphabetically within those subseries. Bufka took many photographs of the many forts he trained at or visited in the United States, as well as the cities he visited or was stationed at in Japan. Due to the lack of information on slides and negatives, these are grouped together by type, not location.
Bufka took photographs of fellow soldiers, events on bases, and of the various cities he visited. On the back of each photograph, Bufka noted when and where the photograph was taken. At bases, Bufka took many photographs of fellow soldiers.
Color slides include images from Japan and Bufka's service. Slides are of Bufka and other on and off bases in Japan.
Negatives include images included as prints in the collection and original images not included elsewhere. Most of the 35 mm negatives have positive prints in the collection, a few rolls of film do not have positive prints. Because these images are often duplicates or very similar to photographs in the collection, a sampling has been kept. The rolls of film were numbered 1 through 38 by Bufka, and were kept in this order. There are several gaps and five rolls of film that had lost their number, which have been placed at the end of the film box. Three canisters of film contained 120 mm and 4 by 5 negatives.
