Recent Articles

An Advertisement for W.W. I Officer Boots (Stars and Stripes, 1918)

A black and white illustration showing the sort of British made boot favored by American officers during World War One. A look at the many pictures which depicted the officers of the A.E.F. and it is clear to see that the lace-to-the-knee style of trench boot was much preferred over other varieties. However, many pictures from the closing days of the war tend to also indicate the line officer’s preference for ankle-boots with puttees.

An Advertisement for W.W. I Officer Boots (Stars and Stripes, 1918) Read More »

A.E.F. Deployment Compared to B.E.F. Deployment (U.S. Gov. 1931)

Attached is a graph comparing the amount of time it took for both the British Army and the American Army to have 2,000,000 soldiers on the Western Front during World War One:

The British sent to France many more men in their first year in the war than we did in our first year. On the other hand, it took England three years to reach a strength of 2,000,000 men in France and the United States accomplished it in one half the time.

A.E.F. Deployment Compared to B.E.F. Deployment (U.S. Gov. 1931) Read More »

American Negros in the Great War (Leslie’s Weekly, 1920)

This is a World War I article listing many of the patriotic commitments that the African-American community devoted to the 1917 – 1918 war efforts:

The war has transformed the American Negro into the Negro American. Because he has been doing big things for his country his sense of national unity grown; his citizenship became a living reality.

They have contributed 300,000 of their young men to the American Army. Of these 1,000 are commissioned officers of the line…One entire regiment was decorated for bravery and several individual soldiers have been cited for deeds of great valor.

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Meet Ann Fish: Conde Nast Illustrator (Vanity Fair, 1919)

Some ninety-three years ago, Fish was the name scribbled on those unique cartoon illustrations that could be found throughout VOGUE (both American and British) and VANITY FAIR. The editor of American VOGUE between the years 1914 and 1952, Edna Woolman Chase (1877 – 1957) called this English cartoonist brilliant and began running her drawings from her earliest days in that office; her full name was Ann Fish and this article will tell you all we know about her.

This most cosmopolitan of living black-and-white satirists has never stirred from England in all her days. She has never especially extended herself as a spectator of the London life which she so amusingly depicts. She has never gazed on Fifth Avenue.

Meet Ann Fish: Conde Nast Illustrator (Vanity Fair, 1919) Read More »

The Evolution of the U.S. Army Web Belt (Outing Magazine, 1918)

The attached article, How Our Soldiers Carry Their Ammunition, was originally published in a 1918 sporting magazine and gives an account as to how one uniform element unique to the U.S. and British military establishments came into prominence during the earliest years of the Twentieth Century. Written by Paul A Curtis, Jr., the essay describes the difficulties inherit with leather belting, the British need for an alternate material in order to maintain colonial regiments in India and the father of the American web belt, General Anson Mills (1834 – 1924).


When the Doughboys complained, they complained heavily about their uniforms; read about it here.

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‘Down-With Suffrage!” (Literary Digest, 1908)

The great meeting held recently in London to launch the Women’s National Anti-suffrage League was made additionally noteworthy by the participation of Mrs. Humphry Ward…

The real reason why women ought not to have the political franchise is the very simple reason that they are not men, and that according to a well-known dictum, even an act of Parliament can not make them men. Men govern the world, and, so far as it is possible to foresee, they must always govern it.

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Reminiscences of August Rodin (Vanity Fair, 1918)

Not long after the death of Auguste Rodin (1840 – 1917) Paris-based artist Stephen Haweis (1878 – 1969) remembered his friendship with the French sculptor:

He loved flattery, as all human beings do, and would listen attentively to rhapsodies from almost anybody, though they do say that a pretty lady got more attention from him than a half-starved journalist.

Rodin proclaimed himself the culminator of one era of sculpture, the inspirer, and nearly the author of another. He was the father of various schools which are lumped under the title of Modern Art.

Reminiscences of August Rodin (Vanity Fair, 1918) Read More »