The Documents series (15 items) contains official military records from Bonney's service in the United States Navy and Naval Reserve. They relate to her training at the United States Naval Reserve Midshipmen's School at Smith College and the Naval Training School at Mount Holyoke College; her promotions to ensign and lieutenant; and her formal resignation from the naval reserve in 1951. Also included are an identification card verifying her active duty in the United States Navy and certificates acknowledging her military participation in World War II.
Photographs (11 items) include black-and-white portraits of Elizabeth Bonney and other women in naval uniforms. Govert van den Bosch sent Bonney pictures portraying soldiers and a military funeral from his service in Indonesia with the Royal Netherlands Marines.
The Printed Materials series (6 items) consists of commencement programs for the United States Naval Reserve Midshipmen's School and the Naval Training School for communications, a commemorative book with photographs of navy officers in training at the Midshipmen's School, and a page from the Sundial with humorous cartoons and quips. Two items form 2002 are a printed poem dedicated to the memory of Elizabeth Bonney van den Bosch and her obituary from the Ann Arbor News.
Elizabeth Kinsell Bonney was born in Columbus, Ohio, on October 15, 1921, and graduated from Ohio State University in 1943. She joined the United States Navy's WAVES. shortly after her college graduation, and served with a coded communications unit in Washington, D. C., during the war. She attained the rank of lieutenant. Bonney married Lieutenant Govert van den Bosch, a member of the Royal Netherlands Marines, on December 24, 1946, and they lived in The Hague, Netherlands, until returning to the United States in 1948. They spent much of their adult lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and had three children: Elisabeth, Anneke, and Richard. Elizabeth Bonney van den Bosch died on September 15, 2002.
