The Henry Lewis Osborn Papers contains letters written by Col. Henry Lewis Osborn to his wife, Katherine, about his time serving in the Pacific Theater during World War II. The letters date from 1943- 1945. Though not in active combat, his correspondence details his time spent flying missions over New Guinea and the Philippine Islands.

Henry Lewis Osborn was born on August 20, 1920 in Neodesha, Kansas to Beverly Carl Osborn (1889-1974) and Nora Cecil Pliler (1900-1995). Henry graduated from the first C.A.A. flight training course offered at the Indpendence Airport and entered the U.S. Army Air Corps as a flying cadet on November 8, 1941 at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He graduated from this school at Victorville, California on June 23, 1942 and received a commission as a Lieutenant. He married Katherine Augusta Dietrich in June 1943. They met while he was stationed in San Diego, California, where he was an interceptor officer for the Air Force, and she was volunteering for the San Diego Air Defense Warning System. Henry served with the 85th Fighter Wing Headquarters, then the 85th's 8th Radar Callibration Detachment, also known as the Signal Radar Maintenance Unit. He served in New Guinea from January 1943 to December 1944 and then the Philippines during the Second World War. He was eventually promoted to the rank of captain and was discharged from the Air Force on February 3, 1947 at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. His son, Henry Lewis Osborn, Jr., was born in 1944 while Lewis was overseas. The couple later had another son, William, born in 1947. Osborn died on November 18, 2004 in National City, California.

All of the correspondence in this collection is written by Henry Lewis Osborn - who went by Lewis - to his wife, Katherine. The letters are dated from January 1943 to July 1945. He talks about his time serving in the Air Force stationed in the Pacific Theater during World War Two. He was not actively engaged in combat, but he does write about flying missions over New Guinea and the Philippine Islands. He mentions in several of his letters his encounters with the native population in New Guinea. 

The collection is arranged in chronological order.