Written by Isabella Baxter, student assistant in UNT Libraries’ Digital Projects Lab
The National Museum of the Pacific War’s annual conference, hosted by the Admiral Nimitz Foundation, was held at the Historic Nimitz Ballroom in Fredericksburg, TX, on October 17th-18th, 2025. This year’s theme was “Pop Culture, Propaganda, and Politics: Reflections on the Pacific War 80 Years Later.” Key speakers included Rob Buscher, Janet M. Davis, Richard B. Frank, Dr. Ambyre Ponivas, Steven Rawle, and Henry Sledge, each of whom contributed their knowledge in individual and group panels.
Isabella Baxter attended on behalf of UNT Libraries Digital Projects Unit, presenting a research poster titled “A Comparison of Slang Diction in Young Adult Correspondence.” The topic pulls from the Antone Bruns letter collection, which Baxter worked on as a metadata employee. The collection features approximately 700 letters between Antone Bruns and his girlfriend—later wife—Otha Lee Bruns, and is an excellent example of young adult diction at the time. Slang and popular diction aligned well with the conference’s theme, which included propaganda comics and other methods of wartime communication.
During the conference, Baxter spoke with many of the museum’s patrons and each of the panelists, sharing information about metadata writing, the Portal to Texas History, and the Bruns collection.
The Admiral Nimitz Foundation has partnered with the Portal to Texas History to digitize items from their vast archive for the museum’s collection on the Portal.
