As Library Company of Philadelphia intern Becca Solnit organizes our material for inclusion in the digital collaborative project Home Before the Leaves Fall: a Great War Centennial Exposition (http://wwionline.org), we in the Print Department have been treated to the largely unexplored visual delights that lurked in our drawers of World War I posters. Posters urging Americans to buy war bonds or not waste food were expected, but posters relating to the war work of the American Library Association (ALA) were more surprising.

Established in 1917, the ALA’s war time programs, known as the Library War Service, accomplished an impressive number of tasks in a short period of time. While these posters are more utilitarian than eye-catching, the work of the Library War Service was given more visual appeal in posters such as this one urging the public to donate books for servicemen. While this poster encouraged donors to drop off their books at nearby public libraries, another Service initiative facilitated the delivery of magazines to the troops.  Created by the Postmaster-General Albert S. Burleson, the special program allowed individuals to mail used magazines for only one cent.   This reading material, referred to in publicity as “Burleson magazines” flooded military libraries through the work of the Library War Service. As many as twenty sacks of magazines weighing as much as one hundred pounds each arrived daily at some camp libraries. The group erected thirty six camp libraries with money from the Carnegie fund; raised five million dollars from the public; distributed close to ten million books, magazines, and newspapers to the troops; and provided library materials to over 500 locations, including more than 200 military hospitals. The Library War Service produced a series of posters promoting their work, and the Library Company’s collection includes four from this series. Using a collage of images the posters showed clean-cut soldiers in training camps enjoying library services, wounded soldiers in hospitals receiving books at bedsides, exteriors of libraries on military bases, and the delivery of reading material to the troops stationed overseas. The organization also reproduced many of these images as lantern slides and used them for fundraising presentations around the country.

Even near the end of the war, the Library War Service remained active. Illustrator Dan Smith (1865-1934), who studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, created this visually striking poster probably when many soldiers were contemplating their re-entry into civilian life. The books leading out of the European trenches and across the Atlantic to America encompassed practical subjects such as drafting, business, farming, and machine shop work. The Library War Service encouraged soldiers to take advantage of library resources. “Got your eyes glued to some job back home?” read some fundraising material. “Better glue them to the book about it at the CAMP LIBRARY. Stick To It, you’ll get the job.” The Library War Service distributed 100,000 copies of this “Knowledge Wins” poster. The Library Company’s copy was “found in collection,” and it would be great to think that it has possibly been in our possession since its distribution almost 100 years ago.

Sarah J. Weatherwax
Curator of Prints and Photographs

The Library Company of Philadelphia is one of many institutions in the Delaware Valley region preparing to commemorate the 100th anniversary of World War I.   After spending this fall working as a digital collections intern at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, in January I moved next door to intern with the Library Company of Philadelphia. As an intern, I have the opportunity to explore the Library Company’s World War I-related collections, and call attention to items that grab my interest. Hopefully this blog post will be one of many, as I work my way through LCP’s fascinating collections of World War I photographs and posters.

On April 2, 1917, nearly three years after World War I had broken out in Europe, President Woodrow Wilson appealed to the United States Congress to declare war on Germany. President Wilson cited two reasons for seeking a congressional declaration of war: Germany’s continued use of unrestricted submarine warfare in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, and Germany’s attempt to recruit Mexico as an ally. Two days later the U.S. Senate voted to declare war, and the House gave its support on April 8.

In response to the American declaration of war, both the British and French governments sent representatives to the United States. René Viviani, the Minister of Justice and Public Information led the French Commission, which also included Marshal Joseph Joffre, “the Victor of the Marne,” Admiral Cocheprat, and Joseph Smith from the Ministry of Finance, among others. The French Commission arrived in the United States on April 24, 1917, and made their way to Washington, D.C. Over the next two weeks, the French representatives also visited Chicago, Kansas City, St. Louis, Springfield, Illinois, before arriving in Philadelphia on May 9.

On May 6, the Pittsburgh Press reported that Dario Resta, “speed king of America,” had volunteered his driving skills to act as Marshal Joffre’s chauffeur while the commission visited Philadelphia. Mayor Thomas B. Smith guided Viviani, Joffre, and guests through “lavish entertainment,” which included visits to Benjamin Franklin’s grave and the University of Pennsylvania, where Viviani and Joffre received honorary doctor of law degrees. When the commission reached the Liberty Bell, Viviani kissed the both bell and his host, Mayor Smith.

Over 100,000 spectators lined Philadelphia’s streets as the French Commission made its way through the city. Philadelphians formally paid their respects to the visiting French dignitaries by presenting Marshal Joffre with a sword during his five and a half hour visit.

Although this selection of photographs captures the festive nature of the French Commission’s visit to Philadelphia, the French sought more than just displays of American enthusiasm and fraternity. In a luncheon speech, Minister Viviani emphasized:

“We are here in order to respond to earnest and solemn words which in the Hall of Independence, this morning, were spoken by representatives of various creeds, and to which your Mayor has just alluded. We are here in order to rise above even the joy of such moments: we are here in order earnestly to consult with one another concerning the gigantic task the hands of our common enemy thrust first upon us, and next upon you.”

The French had been sending their soldiers into the trenches on the Western Front for three years. For Viviani, this was a war not of territory and conquest but of liberty. To conclude his speech in Philadelphia, Viviani described the flags of the allied nations as one unified banner:

“The flag of humanity, the flag which waves so high that it can be seen by all men in the world: a flag that shines so radiant that all men on earth long to see the promises of liberty of equality and justice which its folds contain and announce, shower down on all the earth.”

Becca Solnit
Library Company of Philadelphia Intern

 

Welcome to this inaugural posting of the “Home Before the Leaves Fall: a Great War Centennial Exposition” blog!   The collective authors posting here will be highlighting:  project updates for the Exposition; events from the broad heritage community commemorating and memorializing the War; transcribed and on occasion dramatic readings of news stories and source documents from the world 100 years ago;  and modern stories and scholarship about materials related to the War from heritage collections throughout the Mid-Atlantic region.

Our collective aim is to actively post through the entire Centennial of the war, from 2014 to 2018.

As an initial offering, we would call your attention to a newly digitized scrapbook  from the home front.  Containing a dated photograph depicting soldiers visiting Atlantic City, and many clippings from news stories and vividly colored illustrations cut from magazines, this also shows that racist, ethnic, and gender stereotypes were in common usage – materials from other times reflect other – different – values and cultural assumptions than today.  National participants also readily employed propaganda to depict the “enemy” in increasingly demonic and bestial acts and themselves as innocent victims or angelic avengers.