A Modern Battle Portrayed in Miniature

  • Author: Michael Foight
  • Published: January 29, 2018

Broadside, “A Modern Battle Portrayed in Miniature”, 1920.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One family side show, The Millers Mechanical Shows, founded by John E. Miller and son Clifford M. Miller, traveled the United States showing their miniature reenactments, including their first act “Industrial City“, and later, in 1917 as American troops entered combat in Europe, “Battlefield” – a reenactment of World War I. They also documented the other acts that they traveled and performed with and the places that they visited ranging from Jacksonville, Key West, Daytona, and St Augustine in 1917, to Virginia, North Carolina, Wyoming, Colorado, and even Regina, Saskatchewa, Canada. Newly digitized by the Digital Library at Villanova University this rich set of materials documents American circus life, travel and tourism, as well as the Great War!

Photograph, Miller’s Industrial City, [1917?]

A 1923, broadside describes the “Battlefield”, “500 miniature men, standing three and one-half inches high .. . The aeroplane is driven by its own motor, gaining its power from two collecting rings at top of roof. … The show consists of two Armies in combat on the slopes of two mountains which form a road way‘ through a French village; showing the frowning Forts of the Central Powers; the Allied armies are seen to the left. Both armies have their skirmish lines, first. Second and third line reserve trenches. The German soldiers have a gun that actually loads a shell every two minutes, a prison camp and inmates, gun repair shop, deserted coal mine … sentry on duty, Kaiser Bill and his staff, observation post, wireless aerial, remount station, field batteries, Machine gun nests and pillboxes, hospital. … It works in life movements, taking about forty-five minutes to view the three sides.”

 

 

Photograph, Miller’s Mechanical Battlefield

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photograph, John E. Miller holding dog

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ticket, Miller’s Mechanical Battlefield

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other acts included:

Photograph, “Part of R-R-R Russells – Roosterios – Rollickers,” Tullahoma, Tennessee, [1919].



Artists in Uniform

  • Author: Vincent Fraley
  • Published: June 27, 2014
"Doughboys", lithograph (1918), George Harding, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania

“Doughboys”, lithograph (1918), George Harding, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Artists have attempted to capture the suffering and heroics of war since the Classical era, from Homer following the exploits of Achilles during the Trojan War in The Iliad to Matthew Brady capturing men fighting in the American Civil War in somber photographs.

The 20th century brought a new kind of conflict — global, industrialized — increasing the scope of the horror and the ability to inflict mass casualties. And with these new conflicts came new attempts to document them. One involved a Philadelphia artist, who participated in the war begun 100 years ago this weekend with the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

George Matthews Harding was a Philadelphia-born artist and architect. Before becoming a full-time artist and writer, Harding worked briefly as an architect while studying art at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He contributed illustrations to The Saturday Evening Post and Harper’s Monthly, taught briefly at the University of Pennsylvania and Moore College of Art, and established his own studio. In addition Harding painted mural decorations for theaters, hotels, and other civic projects.

"French Brigade Headquarter, Tours Sector, May 1918", lithograph (1918), George Harding, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania

“French Brigade Headquarter, Tours Sector, May 1918”, lithograph (1918), George Harding, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania

After the United States’ entry into the First World War in April, 1917, Harding began working as a poster illustrator for the U.S. Navy Recruiting Service before being one of eight individuals selected as American Expeditionary Force combat artists to serve overseas in France.

Commissioned in February, 1918, as captains within the Engineers Reserve Corps and given little military training (in one instance, “training” consisted of a five-minute briefing), combat artists were tasked with producing original artwork that depicted the wartime experience of American soldiers serving in France. It was believed to be the first instance in the U.S. Army of men commissioned solely to produce art during wartime.

"Machine Gunners, Argonne", lithograph (1918), George Harding, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania

“Machine Gunners, Argonne”, lithograph (1918), George Harding, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Despite the objective technologies of still photography and the motion film camera available by 1917 – when the United States formally entered the First World War – there was a desire on the part of the American government to record the war subjectively.

In the eyes of General John Pershing (who personally approved the establishment of the role of combat artists), these artistic renditions would not only contribute to the visual historical record of the War, but also prove amenable to propagandists’ repurposing and help drive the sale of Liberty Bonds.

Arriving in France in the early summer of 1918, Harding and the other combat artists were provided credentials allowing relatively free travel. Using whatever transportation they could find, the soldiers toured battlefields to record their impressions of what Harvey Dunn — a combat artist from South Dakota — called “the shock and loss and bitterness and blood of it.”

"German Gun Position, Sergy, March 1918", lithograph (1918), George Harding, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania

“German Gun Position, Sergy, March 1918”, lithograph, George Harding, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania

These eight men created various pictorial representations, in a variety of media, which were submitted for publication to the Pictorial Publicity Division of the Committee on Public Information (the government’s propaganda arm during the War). Stationed at Neufchateau, near the front, the artists were officially directed not to participate in actual combat, but more than one ventured to forward-firing trenches to observe combat firsthand, including Harding.

"Chateau Thierry Refugees, May 31, 1918", George Harding, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania

“Chateau Thierry Refugees, May 31, 1918”, George Harding, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Unlike the heraldic depictions of military glory prevalent in other government-sponsored visual arts, the majority of Harding’s illustrations contain depictions of the common tasks delegated to enlisted men and “the grim reality of war.” Shelled buildings, deserted villages, wandering refugees, casualty clearing stations; reality was emphasized over a glorification of battle.

"26th Division, September 14, 1918", lithograph, George Harding, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania

“26th Division, September 14, 1918”, lithograph, George Harding, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania

In fact, the combat artists’ depictions were so faithful to the actual experiences of enlisted men that the Committee on Public Information deemed the initial output “lacking in sufficient drama,” and began to doubt its use for propaganda. It was Pershing, ever the soldier’s general, who expressed his “heartiest approval” for the combat artists’ work, and asserted that only men serving in France — not in Washington — could determine “sufficient drama.”

Rising death tolls, photographs of the decimated French landscape, mutilated and injured soldiers returning home, often shell-shocked; these did not apparently satiate the Committee’s need for the dramatic.

"Night Patrol, No Man's Land", lithograph (1918), George Harding, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania

“Night Patrol, No Man’s Land”, lithograph (1918), George Harding, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Harding’s illustrations record war as it was experienced, not as it was wistfully imagined. His illustrations depict men on “working parties” — in which soldiers ventured into no-man’s land to dig trenches and reconnoiter enemy movements; interacting with captured German soldiers, including their interrogation by Allied officers; and “mopping up,” military argot for clearing recently gained areas of remaining enemy soldiers.

"Searching Germans Just Captured", lithograph (1918), George Harding, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania

“Searching Germans Just Captured”, lithograph (1918), George Harding, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Also depicted by Harding are soldiers sleeping in abandoned buildings, walking through plumes of deadly gas, and transporting materiel in preparation of an offensive. While the soldiers comprising Harding’s subject matter are primarily Allied forces, these tasks were nearly universal to all armies serving in the Western Front that experienced the stalemate and attrition of trench warfare.

"Going Thro Gas", lithograph (1918), George Harding, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania

“Going Thro Gas”, lithograph (1918), George Harding, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania

By the end of the war, Nov. 11, 1918, the artists had produced nearly 500 pieces of art. A rather hardy man, Harding survived the First World War and returned to Philadelphia. After the war, Harding published a limited-run folio, The American Expeditionary Forces in Action, containing lithographs of his illustrations.

“Mopping Up, Argonne, October 1918″, lithograph, George Harding, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania

“Mopping Up, Argonne, October 1918″, lithograph, George Harding, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Following the surprise bombing of Pearl Harbor, Harding re-enlisted as a combat artist in the Marines –when he was in his sixties. Harding was sent to the Pacific theater and painted depictions of the Marine’s island-hopping campaign, including their landing at Guam. This portrait photograph was taken shortly after Harding’s arrival in the Pacific, 1942.

George Harding, 1942, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania

George Harding, 1942, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania

 

Vincent Fraley

Communications Manager

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania



Newly digitized: 1917 German Machine Gun manual

  • Author: Michael Foight
  • Published: June 16, 2014
Digital Library@Villanova University

Three firing positions. Digital Library@Villanova University

Newly digitized from the Gefreiter Heinrich Möllering Papers is the 1917  “Das Maschinengewehr 08” manual which provides instruction for German soldiers in the equipment and tactics of the machine gun. 

Machine Gun parts, Digital LIbrary@Villanova University.

Machine Gun parts, Digital LIbrary@Villanova University.

The handbook includes detailed notes for the care and tending of horses as well and of course the ubiquitous portrait of Kaiser William II. A history of the glorious German army precedes the main body of text and serves as a reminder of the duty that will be expected of every serving German soldier.

Digital Library@Villanova University.

Kaiser William II. Digital Library@Villanova University.

This specific copy was owned by Heinrich Möllering – a solder in the German army serving on the Eastern Front as a machine gunner.

Horse skeleton, Digital LIbrary@Villanova University.

Horse skeleton, p. 221, Digital LIbrary@Villanova University.





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Last Modified: June 16, 2014