Newspaper Pictorials: World War I Rotogravures: 1913-1919
In a hurry? Save or print these Collection Connections as a single file.
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.
Russian Revolution of 1917
The war had gone badly for the Allies on the Eastern Front. Czar Nicholas II assumed command of the troops on the front in September 1915, leaving the German-born Czarina Alexandra in St. Petersburg directing internal policy. The czarina had come under the influence of the monk Rasputin, who placed his protégés in positions of power and manipulated government policy until his murder in 1916. Military desertions and street demonstrations at home severely weakened the nation and forced Nicholas II to abdicate in March 1917. The provisional government pledged to continue the war, which led to new demonstrations.
In July Alexander Kerensky took control of the government and promised the Allies that Russia would not make a separate peace with the Germans. The Bolshevik October Revolution brought Vladimir Lenin to power. Lenin’s vow to end the war and open negotiations with the Germans provoked the Allies and led to the detachment of a military excursion to oppose the newly established government and aid rebels who had begun a civil war to oust the Bolsheviks. In 1919 the Czar, Czarina, their four daughters, and son were executed by the Bolsheviks in Ekatrinburg, where they had been held captive.
Using names from the paragraphs above as search terms, locate pictures of key figures in the Russian Revolution of 1917. Use these pictures to make a portrait gallery of the Russian Revolutions of 1917; write a description for each picture that explains the person’s significance to the events of the period.
Examine the maps “Geography and Chronology of the World War: Europe, Africa, and the Near East,” “Geography and Chronology of the World War: Asia, Oceania, and the Far East,” and “Theatre Operations on the Russian Front.”
- Why were the Allies so committed to keeping Russia in the war?
- How would Russian withdrawal from the war have affected the longstanding stalemate on the Western Front?