Newspaper Pictorials: World War I Rotogravures: 1913-1919
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Go directly to the collection, Newspaper Pictorials: World War I Rotogravures, in American Memory, or view a Summary of Resources related to the collection.
During the World War I era (1914-18), leading U.S. newspapers took advantage of a new printing technique called rotogravure that produced richly detailed, high quality illustrations. This online collection, Newspaper Pictorials: World War I Rotogravures, includes Sunday rotogravure sections of the New York Times and the New York Tribune, as well as a portfolio of etchings published by the New York Times at the end of 1919, approximately a year after the armistice and six months after the signing of the Versailles Peace Treaty. The latter portfolio, The War of the Nations: Portfolio in Rotogravure Etchings, contains 1,398 images with brief descriptive captions drawn from the “Mid-Week Pictorial” section of the Times.
Rotogravure sections in newspapers were immensely popular. The collages of photographs from the front lines captured the intensity of the fighting. Coverage of casualties and photographs of the destruction of total war helped influence how readers viewed world events and were important tools for promoting U.S. propaganda prior to entry into the conflict in 1917. Events of the war are detailed alongside portraits of noted personalities of the day, society news, and advertisements touting products, some of which are linked to the war.
Newspaper Pictorials: World War I Rotogravures enhances the study
of U.S. history during the World War I era. It is an illustrated history of
the Great War and offers insights into the social history of the era on the
home front through pictorials of high society, fashion, the arts, celebrations,
parades, and memorials. The collection includes a detailed timeline of pivotal
events of the Great
War and a series
of essays on events and statistics of the war; innovative
technology; the
Lusitania disaster; propaganda;
and the rotogravure
process. Additionally, the collection chronicles events stemming from
the Mexican Revolution of 1910 and the subsequent excursion of the American
Expeditionary Force into Mexico prior to the U.S. entry into World War I.
The collection can be searched by keyword or be browsed by date
and title. For browsing by date and title, it is useful to know that the
New York Times collection begins in November 1913 and the New York Tribune
begins in January 1916; the War of the Nations was published in December 1919.
The Home Front
To help finance the war effort, the U.S. government issued a call for public support through Liberty Bond drives. Efforts were also expended to mobilize civilians to plant vegetable gardens and abstain from meat on certain days, all in an effort to do their part in the war. Society women joined in as well; one such group formed a gun club. Through such laws as the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918, the government suppressed dissent against the war.
Examine the following pages for evidence of how civilians were encouraged
to support the war effort. Look for evidence in the collection that other
countries, particularly the Allies, sought similar sacrifices from their civilian
population.
- New York Times, March 18, 1917 [9].
- New York Times, April 29, 1917 [5].
- New York Times, April 29, 1917 [8 ].
- New York Times, September 29, 1918 [11].
The nation rapidly transformed from a civilian to a war economy. Factories were converted to produce military equipment and munitions, and women went to work in factories to fill jobs left vacant by men going to war. According to the “Events and Statistics: Finances of the War” essay, 2,000,000 women worked in war industries. Search the collection to find a variety of ways in which women supported the war effort; the New York Times of July 29, 1917, has several examples to start your research.
The war did not stop women from continuing their long history of demonstrations for the right to vote. Among the many marches to bolster support for a woman suffrage amendment, the Congressional Union for Woman’s Suffrage marched to the White House to encourage President Wilson to endorse a suffrage amendment to the Constitution and organized “silent sentinels” to stand guard insisting that the president take action. Shortly after the United States broke off diplomatic relations with Germany, some women joined pacifist movements expressing opposition to U.S. involvement; these included Representative Jeannette Rankin and social worker Jane Addams. Many other women, including suffragist leader Carrie Chapman Catt, rallied to show their support. At the same time, they argued that if the United States was defending democracy in Europe, the nation ought to include women in its own democratic processes. President Wilson finally endorsed a constitutional amendment allowing women to vote in 1918.