The diaries of William Taylor were written by a soldier from Milwaukee, Wisconsin during the Second World War who spent 1944 and 1945 writing about travelling to different bases throughout the United States. He was later deployed to an unspecified location in the Pacific Theater, then Tokyo after V-J-Day. Taylor frequently drank, played cards, and sought after women. William regularly wrote about his friends, especially Jock/Joc – a nickname for Captain Harvey George Odenbrett, a man who earned the Navy Cross for his service and went on to become a Judge, and Marvin L. Kleinman. Also included in the second folder are ephemera collected by Taylor, which includes items such as military records, rifle scores, "Going Back to Civilian Life," records of bonds and income, calling cards from universities, and a list of Taylor's favorite songs. Ephemera dates between 1942 and 1949.

William Harrison Taylor was born in Wisconsin around 1924. He was the son of Jacob Henry Taylor (1872 – 1949) and Amanda Bluteau Taylor (1884 – 1960), the daughter of Canadian immigrants. Jacob was a photographer and Amanda was a stenographer for a gas company. William was married to a woman named Mavis, the couple had at least one daughter named Heather. William died in 2004.