In almost every country involved in the war, the poster played its part in the war effort. The poster could impress an idea quickly, vividly, and lastingly. Soon after the outset of World War I the poster, previously the successful medium of commercial advertising, was recognized as a means of communication in spreading national propaganda with unlimited possibilities. When the Americans arrived in 1917, General Pershing gave Hornby a pass to travel among the American Expeditionary Forces where he made these etchings. He was in Brittany, France, when the war started in 1914. He studied in Paris from 1906 to 1910, where he served as Director of the American Art Association of Paris. Born in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1882, Hornby studied at the Rhode Island School of Design and the Art Students’ League of New York. Painted helmets also were made into lamps stateside.ĭrawings by Lester G. Some painted helmets were done on commission for American soldiers by German prisoners of war.
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But after the guns were silenced, the Doughboy artists got busy with painted insignia, itinerary, maps, pseudo-camouflage, and battle scenes. Unit insignia were the first objects painted on helmets, but this was rare before the cessation of hostilities due to the concern that the enemy would gain information from seeing the insignia. Model 1910 mess kit (meat can) provided a canvas of sorts for the soldier with a knife.ĭuring the war the steel helmets worn by the Doughboys were unadorned. Brown, 119th Field Artillery, 32nd Division, American Expeditionary Forces, described the French cottage industry of producing shell art or so-called trench art. They filled the shells with sand and then using a punch and other tools made decorations and inscriptions.” Second Lieutenant Allen B.
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“The French had quite an industry behind the lines. Get an extra one for a pal.” The $1 piece of shell art was produced by the Keeler Brass Company of Grand Rapids, Michigan. An advertisement in an American Legion Weekly from that year touted a “75mm ash tray – the Ideal Christmas Gift – a genuine 75mm cartridge with original markings on base. It is true that American and other soldiers wanted souvenirs of all types, and they purchased decorated, recycled shell casings on a grand scale, but the front-line soldier had neither the tools nor the time to create many of the fantastic decorations.Īs late as 1921, mass-produced shell art was still being sold to souvenir-seeking Doughboys.
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The image of the bored soldier, sitting in his trench, twisting and hammering brass shell casings into vases, is one of the longest-running snippets of folklore from World War I. MacGregor posed for MacMorris and his classmates at the Kansas City Art Institute. At the 1921 site dedication of the Liberty Memorial, Kansas City artist Daniel MacMorris met Sergeant MacGregor, who attended the ceremony with his Scotch-Canadian Highlander regiment.
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Battlefields and soldiers have been popular subjects with artists since earliest times.” Here are a few examples from our extensive collections: A military historian once asserted, “Art and war are old companions. From the “high art” of such luminaries as France’s Pierre Carrier-Belleuse to the etched mess kit of an unknown American soldier to so-called “trench art,” this exhibit illustrated a wide range of pieces created during and after the war. War Art drew completely from the Museum’s rich collections to examine a WWI topic in more detail. The first special exhibition of the new National World War I Museum opened in 2006 in Exhibit Hall, one of the original, 1926 Liberty Memorial buildings.