The 21st General Hospital Records is a collection of manuscripts and war memorabilia brought together and preserved by veterans of a military unit. Several of the series were generated as official records of the 21st General Hospital when it was stationed overseas, 1942-1945. But also included are many files and writings compiled or composed by the principal donor, Lee D. Cady, M.D. as late as 1975. The collection is designated a record group because it documents the history of an organization, rather than the career of any particular individual and because this organization at its inception was sponsored by Washington University School of Medicine.

The record group, as processed and described in this inventory by the Archives staff, is comprised of seventeen series. The series include narrative histories and reports, unit newspapers, records of the unit before activation, training materials, transit orders and rosters, files pertaining to each of the overseas duty stations, personnel files, general subject files, maps and plans, and select publications concerning the war and locales where the unit served.