Articles from 1917
The design and general scheme of a small dugout which can be made by the infantry under the supervision of an officer, without the aid of an engineer, are here given.
Click here to read an article about life in a W.W. I German listening post…
Click here to see a 1915 ad for British Army military camp furniture.
Notes on a British Front-Line Dugout (”Trench Warfare”, 1917) Read More »
When watching the old newsreel footage from the two world wars you see a fair amount of American sailors going about their business. They wore a uniform that seemed to have its origins in the Nineteenth Century, with bell bottom trousers and an odd shirt called a jumper. The blue jumper of an American sailor is decorated with various white stripes, stars and topped off with a queer little black silk kerchief; this article seeks to explain what the origins behind them all were largely British.
The American Sailor Uniform: An Explanation (The Literary Digest, 1917) Read More »
During America’s short and costly participation in the First World War, a prominent New York clothing establishment, Brooks Brothers, did swift business making custom uniforms for both the Army and Navy.
As the following attachment will show, they also offered forty other items that were of use to both the officers as well as the ranks.
Click here to see a Vanity Fair editorial about Christmas gifts for Doughboys.
Brooks Brothers & Christmas 1917 Read More »
A brief notice from 1917 reported on the arrest of three women for smoking in the Times Square subway station in New York City.
When the socially astute, forward-thinking judge recognized that no real crime had been committed they were released, but in the high fashion world feminine tobacco abuse, these women are often said to be the Rosa Parks of nicotine:
Mary Driscoll, Edna Stanley and Elsie Peterson
let their names live ever more!
N.Y. Court Ruled That Women Can Smoke in Public (Hearst’s Sunday American, 1917) Read More »
A brief notice from 1917 reported on the arrest of three women for smoking in the Times Square subway station in New York City.
When the socially astute, forward-thinking judge recognized that no real crime had been committed they were released, but in the high fashion world feminine tobacco abuse, these women are often said to be the Rosa Parks of nicotine:
Mary Driscoll, Edna Stanley and Elsie Peterson
let their names live ever more!
N.Y. Court Ruled That Women Can Smoke in Public (Hearst’s Sunday American, 1917) Read More »
Six months after the United States entered the First World War all sorts of issues had to be addressed, such as the matter of the Sam Brown belt. Since 1914 the famous sword belt had been established as an emblem of authority among all the Allied armies along the assorted fronts, but the Americans didn’t like it one bit. The level-headed editors of Collier’s Magazine published the attached editorial pointing out that such matters of military fashion simply don’t matter at a time of national emergency and to illustrate their point they quoted a portion from Under Fire by Henri Barbusse which laid plain how miserable everyone (without exception) looks in the trenches, regardless of their accessories.
The Sam Brown Belt and Military Fashions (Collier’s, 1917) Read More »
By the time the U.S. Army had joined the war in 1917, they were far behind in the study of camouflage, but they did their best to catch up quickly. The American generals assigned the task camouflage to the Signal Corps, which began to cruise the ranks for artists and sculptors because of their natural abilities understand paint and scale (one of the more well-known W.W. I Signal Corps camofleurs was the painter Grant Wood: click here to read about him).
The attached article displays an illustration that clearly shows that the American Army had torn a page out of that well-worn play book written by the British Camouflage School in order to deploy papier-mache dummies along the front lines. There is no evidence or written word to indicate that it was actually done.
Papier-Mache Used to Deceive German Snipers (Popular Mechanics, 1917) Read More »
Stephen Leacock (1869 – 1944) had some amusing opinions concerning social introductions according to the recognized formulas.
With the approach of the winter season, conversation as an art is again in order. It is a thing that we all need to consider. Some of us are asked out to dinner merely because we talk. Others, chiefly because we do not. It is a matter in which we can help one another. Let us discuss it…
Click here to read about feminine conversations overheard in the best New York bathrooms.
The Fine Art of Introduction (Vanity Fair, 1917) Read More »
A witty if dry profile of George Jean Nathan (1882 – 1958), one of the more prolific essayists and reviewers of all things dramatic and literary during the Twenties. At the time of this printing he was serving as the co-editor (along with his friend H.L. Mencken) of the American magazine The Smart Set while contributing occasional drama reviews to Vanity Fair. You’ll read a very long list of Nathan’s likes and dislikes, which, in fact, comprise 99% of the profile.
Later in life, Nathan would wed Mary Pickford – read about her here…
George Jean Nathan (Vanity Fair, 1917) Read More »
An enthusiastic review of the Hollywood silent film, The Tiger Woman (1917) starring the first (but not the last) female sex symbol of the silent era, Theda Bara (born Theodosia Burr Goodman; 1885-1955).
This very brief review will give you a sense of how uneasily many men must have sat in their chairs when she was pictured on screen.
She is a very tigerish ‘Tiger Woman’ in this picture. Her heart, her soul, her finger tips, her eyelashes, her rounded arms, her heaving buzzum, all vibrate to a passion for pearls.
Theda Bara retired in 1926, having worked in forty-four films.
Click here to read articles about Marilyn Monroe.
Theda Bara: Sex Symbol (The Atlanta Georgian, 1917) Read More »
