The collection consists of 16 letters written to Maud B. MacBride by Stark and newspaper clippings saved by MacBride about Stark. Only one of the letters is dated, 25 July 1917, in which Stark tells Maud of his commission as captain in the U. S. Army Field Artillery. There are two envelopes with 1919 postmarks but it is unclear which letters they held. Being love letters, the correspondence lacks the mention of daily news and events that often prove helpful in dating letters that bear no date. Stark wrote several times of America’s reluctance to enter World War I and of his plans to re-enter the military once the U. S. entered the war in April 1917. This benchmark provided some guidance in placing a few letters in the order in which they were written but did little to help with assigning dates. Maud saved newspaper clippings of Stark’s career. They span from 1917 to 1945. The final clipping is a photo of Barbara (MacBride) Bradley, Stark’s daughter, from a Des Moines newspaper.