Melvin Lord in his youth
Top left: portrait of Melvin Smith Lord in his youth.
Top right: diploma dated June 10, 1937, from The National Society of Scabbard and Blade, naming Melvin Captain.
Bottom: diploma from Lehigh University, naming Melvin Colonel of the Lehigh University Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, dated March 1, 1938.
Melvin Lord and the Armstrong Cork Company
Top left: A letter dated April 1, 1938, signed by J. J. Evans Jr., personal manager of the Armstrong Cork Company, and addressed to Melvin Lord. In it, Melvin is offered a job, and J. J. Evans expresses his desire to meet the young man.
Top right: A letter from Robert R. McLintoock, which mentions Norman Sloot, a possible partner, as it turns out, in Melvin’s spy network on the Costa Brava.
Top: A letter from C. Dudley Armstrong, vice president in charge of overseas operations for the Armstrong Cork Company, written on May 7, 1942. In it, the company points out Melvin’s values and trust, aiming to allow him to return to Spain after being in the United States. According to the letter, the reason for the trip was business, although, in fact, it was for Melvin’s training in the OSS.
Below are the workers at the Armstrong Cork Company. Melvin is located at the center of the second row from the bottom.
Personal diaries of Carmen Pagès
Top left: Carmen Pagès’ diary, written in 1936. The scanned page talks about November 17, when the ship Canarias bombed the coast of Palamós.
Top right: the first page of the diary written by Carmen in 1940, also dated November 17. It describes how she is in love with Melvin Lord, her fiancé, and the doubts she has about marriage at a young age.
Pelayo Pagès and Maria Vilar
Top left: a letter dated February 7, 1941, written by Montague Lord Sr. and addressed to Pelayo Pagès. In it, Montague Lord asks Pelayo to convince Melvin and Carmen that, after their wedding, they should spend some time in the United States.
Top right: a postcard sent on June 16, 1953 by the Sanderson family to Pelayo Pagès Belleville and Maria Vilar.
Bottom right: a postcard sent by Josep Pla to María Vilar, Carmen Pagès’s mother, to flatter her daughter.
Contacts
Above: meeting at the Hotel Roca Fosca in Palamós, with some of those connected to Melvin’s clandestine network present in the photograph. From left to right: Pere Pla, Rafael Maria, “Mascort”, unidentified person, Norman Sloot, an unidentified person, Jaime Saguer, Melvin Lord and Lluís Bofill.
Below: correspondence sent to Carmen Pagès from occupied Paris, by Aymone de Faucigny.
Friendship with David y Betty Sanderson
Above, left and right: photographs of Carmen Pagès and Melvin Lord sharing leisure time with David and Betty Sanderson.
Below: Melvin and David next to the sailboat “Ojalá”, whose construction they used as a reason to travel to L’Escala.
Family
Top left: a letter dated March 27, 1945, in which Carmen writes to Melvin’s aunt Elisabeth Lord, informing her that her newborn daughter Marilee and she are in Seville, while Melvin has left for France for the end of World War II.
Top right: a photograph of Melvin and Carmen sailing together.
Below: an announcement of the birth of Montague John Lord on May 4, 1946, in Barcelona.
Above: Carmen and Melvin with Margaret Travis, biological mother of Melvin.
Top left: Elisabeth Lord y Edith Schriver.
Top right: Montague Lord Sr., Melvin’s adoptive father.
Top: Melvin Lord y Carmen Pagès with their children, Montague John Lord and Marie Elisabeth Lord.
Below left: Pelayo Pagès and María Vilar, parents of Carmen, with Montague John Lord and Marilee Lord.
Below right: Montague Lord, Marilee Lord, Pelayo Pagès, Clotilde, Melvin S. Lord, Carmen Pagès, Mercedes Ribera Casamada y Pelayo Pagès Jr.