Articles from 1919
Forward passing dominated eastern and western intercollegiate football to a degree unprecedented in the history of the game…
The Forward Pass Goes Mainstream (American Legion Weekly, 1919) Read More »
A look at the suits and fashion trends for the Summer of 1919.
Suits and Accessories for Summer, 1919 (Vanity Fair Magazine, 1919) Read More »
At the end of the First World War, the young women of France were asked the question:
Who would you choose for a husband, a Frenchman or an American? And what are the qualities and faults which justify your preference?
Some of the answers were pretty funny (especially the responses made by the irate Frenchmen returning from the Front). After all the votes were tallied, it was discovered that, regardless of their gold teeth, big tortoise shell glasses and shaved faces, the Doughboys were able to charm as much as a quarter of the women asked (which was a good deal better than they thought they would do) Some women, however, were not very impressed.
Click here to read an article about social diseases within the A.E.F..
Click here if would like to read about British Women and American G.I.s during the Second World War…
French Women and American Soldiers (The Spiker, 1919) Read More »
The Doughboys of the the U.S. Twenty-Seventh Infantry remember the bad old days in Vladivostok guarding the trans-Siberian railway line:
The Czar’s old government used to send its enemies to Siberia, to exile; Uncle Sam’s government sent its own men there to guard a railroad. Whose railroad it was and what it was there for and why Americans should be taken away from a perfectly good war in France and stationed up there to take care of it — surely you can answer all these questions. If you can’t, don’t go to any of the veterans of the Siberian Expeditionary Force, because they won’t give you very coherent answers. They think the whole trip was a post-season special, staged especially for their benefit.
American Soldiers Remember Siberia (American Legion Weekly, 1919) Read More »
This is a wonderful read in which the American World War One fighter pilot Eddie Rickenbacker (1890 – 1973), recounted his experiences in France. Arriving rather late in the game (March, 1918), he quickly racked up 26 kills, a Croix de Guerre, a Distinguished Service Cross, the Legion d’Honeur and the Congressional Medal of Honor (which would not be approved and awarded to him until 1930). He was the top Ace in the American Air Service. In his later life, he would go on to become one of the founders of Continental Airlines.
I learned pretty fast. Long practice in driving a racing-car at a hundred miles an hour or so gives first-class training in control and judging distances at high speed…
In his later life, Rickenbacker would go on to become one of the founders of Continental Airlines.
Click here to read an article about the development of aerial reconnaissance during W.W. I.
Read what the U.S. Army psychologists had to say about courage.
Captain Eddy Rickenbacker: Fighter Pilot (The Literary Digest, 1919) Read More »
An illustrated article from the chic Conde Nast magazine, VANITY FAIR, regarding one of the great Canadian disappointments of the immediate post-war years: the failure to build the Canadian war memorial building. By the summer of 1919 1,000 paintings and drawings depicting the experiences of the World War had been amassed with the intention of displaying them in a museum that was to serve as a remembrance to the Canadian servicemen of that war.
Throughout the Twenties and Thirties there were numerous advisory groups charged with the task of launching the museum, but they were never able to agree on key issues. With the outbreak of the Second World War the urgency of the project took root – and, finally, the Canadian War Museum was officially established in 1942 (and opend in 1967).
There are two paintings illustrating the article: Camouflaged Ships by E. Wadsworth and Strathcona Horse on the March by A.J. Munnings.
W.W. I Art and the Canadian War Memorial (Vanity Fair Magazine, 1919) Read More »
The attached VANITY FAIR art review by Christian Brinton (1870 – 1942) covered the first public exhibition of the British War Artists to be shown on American shores (1919):
A direct product of war and war conditions, it reflects not only the varied aspects and incidents of the great struggle, but but also the actual state of British artistic taste at the present moment…England has been the first to enlist the services of the artist, and the readiest to grant him the measure of official standing so manifestly his due.
Launched jointly by the British Ministry of Information and the Worcester Art Museum, the exhibit was comprised of almost 250 paintings. This review discusses the art of Paul Nash, Muirhead Bone, Sir John Lavery, James McBey,Sir William Orpen, Augustus John, C.R.W. Nevinson, John Everett, Frank Brangwyn and Eric Kennington.
World War I Pictures by British Artists Seen in America (Vanity Fair Magazine, 1919) Read More »
An illustration of the insignia patch and a brief account of the origins, deployments and war-time activities of the U.S. Army’s 90th Infantry Division during World War One. We have also provided a review of A History of the 90th Division by Major George Wythe (which the reviewer didn’t especially care for but nonetheless provides a colorful account of the division’s history in France).
The Ninetieth Division: Texas and Oklahoma (Stars and Stripes, 1919) Read More »
An illustration of the insignia patch and a brief account of the origins, deployments and war-time activities of the U.S. Army’s Seventy-Eighth Division in the First World War
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Although the unit arrived rather late, it saw a great deal of combat.
The Seventy-Eighth Division (Stars and Stripes, 1919) Read More »
Numbered among the many Monday-morning-quarterbacks who appeared in print throughout much of the Twenties and Thirties were the old horse soldiers of yore, bemoaning the fact that industrial warfare had deprived their kind of the glory that was their birthright. This was not the case on the Eastern Front, where Imperial Russian generals had seen fit to launch as many as 400 cavalry charges – while American troopers were ordered to dismount (along with most other cavalry units in the West) and suffer postings with the Service of Supply, among other assorted indignities.
The Case for Cavalry (Vanity Fair Magazine, 1919) Read More »
