1914: Then Came Armageddon

August 11 – December 30, 2014

A documentary exhibit about World War I, especially on the Western Front, commemorated the centennial of its outbreak. Guest exhibit co-curators Skye Doney and Eric O’Connor drew upon strong holdings of books, printed ephemera, letters, postcards, and other unpublished materials in campus libraries and archives to illustrate the months leading up to the beginning of war in Europe in 1914; prosecution of the war itself; life on the home front; creative works inspired by the war; and the eventual entry of the United States into the “war to end all wars.”

The exhibit highlighted World War I materials in Special Collections, among them the Andrew Laurie Stangel Collection, full of rich imagery concerning German wartime propaganda. Scores of picture postcards from the Stangel Collection are digitized and available on the UW Digital Collections Center, under the title: “The Fine Art of Propaganda, Hand-Delivered. Greetings from the Fatherland!: German Picture Postcards and History, 1914-1945.” Other portions of World War I holdings in Special Collections are also included in the history section of the UW Digital Collections. The exhibit also featured works from the circulating collections in Memorial Library, materials from the library and archives of the Wisconsin Historical Society, and titles borrowed from private collections. A checklist of the exhibit is available.

The exhibit project has enjoyed support from the George L. Mosse Program in History.

A finding aid pointing researchers toward many World War I-related books, manuscripts, and printed ephemera in Special Collections is also available through the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections. Although this finding aid is extensive, it does not describe all relevant holdings in Special Collections. The staff of Special Collections will be happy to help you identify additional materials that may speak to your interests in this topic.

For more about the exhibit, collections, and related lecture “1914-1918: The War Within the War” by historian Adam Hochschild, see  the news release “Often Overlooked Impacts of WWI” (October 9, 2014).

Numerous World War I medals from the Stangel collection at the Chazen Museum of Art remain on view in the niche display between galleries VII and VIII.For a brief summary of the Stangel collection of medallic art, see its description among the Chazen’s notable collections; detailed images of this medallic art can be found in an online Chazen Museum portfolio, including a detailed depiction of the sinking of the Lusitania.