Walter Gustafson's letters detail his work on Abadan Island, Iran (likely for the oil company that became British Petroleum) between 1943 and 1944. Gustafson began in the United Kingdom, traveled to Cairo, Egypt, and spent several months in Iran. Through several extensive letters sent to his sisters in Chicago, Illinois, Gustafson provided detailed descriptions of the local people and their customs, as well as the several week voyage back to the United States beginning with the Persian Gulf and Suez Canal. Much of the content written is self-censored and he frequently told his sisters that he would tell everything when he returned. The correspondence includes photographs, as well as one postcard of Gustafson by the Tigris River.

Walter  Gustafson  was  a  native  of  Chicago,  Illinois,  who  worked  as  a  pipe-fitter  for  the  M.W.  Kellogg  Company  in  Iraq  and  Iran  in  1943  and  1944.  Based  on  his  descriptions  and  an  uncensored  letter  written  during  his  voyage  home,  Gustafson  was  primarily  helping  to  construct  pipelines  for  the  Anglo-Iranian  Oil  Company  (later  named  British  Petroleum)  on  Abadan  Island  in  Iran.  The  pipelines  in  this  region  –  known  during  the  Second  World  War  as  the  “Persian  Corridor”  –  were  crucial  in  supplying  oil  and  petroleum  products  to  the  Allies.