Francis Hughes Collection

Long Beach Island, New Jersey, USA, from Fran Hughes Collection | Photo by Leo Kenney

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Once a Marine, Always a Marine

Francis Hughes, my grandfather, picked up the sand collection habit during WW2. He was a marine in the pacific theater. He never spoke about the war, but I did a national archive search after his passing and learned he was stationed at Pearl Harbor (after the attack) and also served in both the battle of the Philippines and Okinawa.

Being a marine was a big part of "who he was", and I know collecting sands from certain battle sites was something that interested him. In terms of collecting sands from around the world, part of it was collected by himself, but part of it was collected for him by friends from their travels. He became evangelized after the war, and became very active with his church. A lot of the sand that was collected came from his church friends' travels and bringing sand back to him. I really do not know what he personally collected, vs what was given to him by friends. I did not receive the collection until after he passed.

Patrick Marcantuono

The Fran Hughes Collection is more than 600 samples collected over a lifetime and housed in shadow boxes. The “sand” ranges in size from fine silt and soil, through typical sand, up to small pebbles. The collection is a very nicely curated and displayed example of sand souvenirs. The US Marine Corp is represented by samples from locations of Marine military engagement or USMC bases. Some of these samples have American flag pins in the vials with the sand.