Before the advent of radio and motion pictures, art and illustration were the primary forms of mass communication. With the outbreak of World War I, governments, militaries, and service organizations hired artists and illustrators to depict the ravages of war and to rally patriotism. Poster image

The First World War remade the world geopolitically and transformed how societies engage and relate to military conflict. Artistic expression during the war contributed to this transformation. Before World War I, war art largely depicted heroic military leaders and romanticized battles,

World War I provided a testing ground for the application of new medical technologies and procedures and, in some cases, accelerated their general acceptance or development in a much wider context. Simultaneously, wartime medical practice reflected the larger concerns and prejudices of early 20th

This online exhibition uses objects to tell the stories of disabled Americans from the 1800s to the present. The exhibition covers many aspects of life, including home, schools, and institutions, as well as how changes in technology and medicine have impacted the disabled. In addition to the exhi

While training for combat on the fields of Yale University in 1917, Private J. Robert Conroy found a brindle puppy with a short tail. He named him Stubby, and soon the dog became the mascot of the 102nd Infantry, 26th Yankee Division. He learned the bugle calls, the drills, and even a modified do

This website features the diary of Civil War nurse, Amanda Akin. In April 1863, Akin left her home in Quaker Hill, NY, to serve as a nurse at Armory Square Hospital in Washington, D.C. During her 15 months at Armory Square, Akin wrote long letters to her sisters and recorded her daily activities

Women served in the Civil War as nurses, spies, and vivandieres. Explore these stories with students through a video clip and close examination of two dresses and a woman's uniform.This lesson plan (which includes background information, guided analysis questions, and full-color primary sources)

Over the course of her 60-year career, Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996) became known to fans and colleagues as "The First Lady of Song." Her rise to international fame as a jazz and popular singer coincided with the rise of an American entertainment industry that brought music to millions through conc

Students will learn how Americans joined the Allies to defeat Axis militarism and nationalist expansion. Sixteen million Americans donned uniforms in this section of the online exhibition The Price of Freedom: Americans at War. The millions more who stayed home comprised a vast civilian

In this post, students will learn about Washington during the Civil War. During the war, Washington’s busy wharves were the focal point for moving people and supplies into and out of the city. Here the wounded from the Virginia battlefields were off-loaded from steamboats to await transpor