This is a guest post by Ryan Reft, a historian in the Manuscript Division. Fans of the HBO series “Boardwalk Empire” may remember that World War I veterans grappling with disability occupied a critical place in the show’s story. Fictional vet Jimmy Darmandy (Michael Pitt) struggled as much with PTSD as he did with a […]

This is a guest post by Ryan Reft, a historian in the Manuscript Division. Every country has found itself face to face with this situation at the close of a great war. From Rome under Caesar to France under Napoleon down even to our own Civil War, the problems arose as to what could be […]

This post first appeared in “Veterans on the Homefront,” the November–December issue of LCM, the Library of Congress Magazine. The entire issue is available online. The Library preserves recordings and sheet music of thousands of tunes from World War I. The Great War inspired thousands of songs, music that a century later still evokes a […]

This is a guest post by Ryan Reft, a historian in the Manuscript Division. By 1910, nearly a third of the United States’ 92 million residents were either born abroad or the progeny of parents who immigrated to America. The idea of “hyphenated Americans”—citizens who identified as Polish-American or Italian-American, for example—discomforted many native-born citizens. […]

This is a guest post by Ryan Reft, a historian in the Manuscript Division. Amid war, Labor Day in 1918 took on increased importance. Mobilization had presented unprecedented opportunities, and workers achieved remarkable advances during America’s months at war. Many reached out to President Woodrow Wilson before the 1918 holiday, hoping that he might make […]

This is a guest post by Kathleen McGuigan, an educational resources specialist in the Educational Outreach Program. Hundreds of visitors to the Library over the past few months have taken a deep dive into the Library’s World War I resources by attending a gallery talk—a presentation by a Library specialist about the exhibition “Echoes of […]

This is a guest post by Rachel Telford, archivist for the Veterans History Project. It was first published on “Folklife Today,” the blog of the American Folklife Center. Recently, the Veterans History Project launched “Over There,” part two of our companion site to the Library of Congress exhibit “Echoes of the Great War: American Experiences […]

This is a guest post by Naomi Coquillon, an education specialist in the Interpretive Programs Office. It is the second of two posts by Coquillon about films the Library is screening this summer to highlight European perspectives on World War I. The screenings are part of the Library’s commemoration of the centennial of U.S. involvement […]

This is a guest post by Ryan Reft, a historian in the Library’s Manuscript Division. Teddy Roosevelt believed in the efficacy of war. For Roosevelt, the call to arms expressed national greatness and bold masculinity. Unsurprisingly, the former president loudly championed America’s entrance into World War I, often assailing President Wilson in the years and […]

This is a guest post by Naomi Coquillon, an education specialist in the Interpretive Programs Office. When the Library began its work on “Echoes of the Great War: American Experiences of World War I,” there was, as with all exhibitions, a question of scope. How could an institution with a collection as comprehensive as the […]