World War I Resources

Books. Special Collections has several hundred titles, mainly fiction, poetry, histories, and narratives which relate to World War I. Included are published first-hand accounts such as diaries, journals, and correspondence, with examples like Compton Mackenzie, Gallipoli Memories [Main D639.S7 M278 1929 and Spec D563 .M3]; William Mitchell, Memoirs of World War I [Main and Spec D606 .M5]; Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of an Infantry Officer [Main D640 .S3 and Spec PR6037.A86 M43]; and Wendell Westover, Suicide Battalions [Spec D570.34 5th .W4]. Also, first editions of works by well known authors such as Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms [Main PS3515.E48 F3 and Spec PS3515.E37 F3]; T. E. Lawrence, Revolt in the Desert [Main and Spec D568.4 .L39]; Rudyard Kipling, The Irish Guards in the Great War [Main D547.I6 K5 and Spec PR4854 .I7]; and Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front [Main and Spec PT2635.E68 I625].

Manuscripts/Primary Resources. Correspondence, photographs, and a variety of other primary resource materials relating to World War I are found in a number of collections. In some cases the collections are devoted solely to World War I, but in other instances the items are located in larger collections of non-war related material. The following are the most significant relevant collections:

• Bear [Mrs. H. S. (Marjorie W.)] Collection. World War I ephemera, including broadsides, programs, tags, stickers, and pins. (SC 790).
• Belden [Louis deKeyser] Papers. Correspondence, documents, photographs, and ephemera of a surgeon and Captain in the Medical Corps during WWI. (Bernath Mss 25).
• Community Development and Conservation Collection [Pearl Chase Collection]. Includes instruction manuals, clippings, photos picture postcards, maps, diagrams, memoranda, notes, and other ephemera relating to the World War I service of Harold Chase, Pearl Chase’s brother. Also, a few files relating to the war effort in Santa Barbara. (SBHC Mss 1).
• Davidson [Eugene] Collection, ca. 1917-2002. Books and papers of an historian and editor of Yale University Press, primarily relating to 20th century German history, including the Weimar Republic, Third Reich, Holocaust, Nuremberg trials, international war tribunals, and the Cold War period. (Mss 185).
• Driscoll [Thomas] Collection. Contains correspondence, documents (including intelligence reports), maps, pamphlets, photographs, and posters of a Lt. Colonel and Division Intelligence Officer in the U.S. Army’s 91st Division during World War I. (Bernath Mss 7).
• Esau [Katherine] Papers. Includes photographs of the German armed forces, taken by Esau’s brother Paul, who served in the German military as a photographer during World War I. (UArch FacP 23).
• Great War Collection. Papers and records of individual units (many British), government documents, photographs, scrapbooks, and maps. Also printed pamphlets, serials, and several hundred books. (Bernath Mss 20).
• Hansen [Alfred J.] Collection. Records of District 7, Veterans of World War I, covering Santa Maria, Santa Barbara, Camarillo, and Ventura, 1969-1988. (Bernath Mss 21).
• Hathaway [Charles Mongomery, Jr.] Papers. American academic and diplomat, with service in Ireland and elsewhere during World War I. (Bernath Mss 9).
• Kreutzberg [John] Papers. Correspondence and photographs of an American who served in the French army during World War I and drove an ambulance contributed by his home town of Lake Bluff, Illinois. (Bernath Mss 22).
• McKie [Helen] Collection. Original and printed drawings by Helen McKie of World War I scenes, many depicting women in the war effort. (Bernath Mss 24).
• Murphy [John Frederic] Papers. Correspondence, documents, b/w photos, flyers, pamphlets and other printed material relating to the life of a Santa Barbara architect, including his military service during World War I. (SBHC Mss 21).
• Rieffel [Aristide] Collection. Includes some World War I era correspondence and writings on the nature of war, the state, military service and militarism, pacifism and neutrality, international relations, and colonialism. Rieffel was a French philosopher, social scientist, journalist, and inventor who moved to Santa Barbara late in life. (Mss 153).
• Wilson-McAdoo Collection. Includes some World War I era correspondence, mostly relating to Eleanor Randolph Wilson McAdoo, youngest daughter of Woodrow and Ellen Louise Axson Wilson, and a Santa Barbara area resident later in life. (Bernath Mss 18).
• Wilson Peace Trip. Photo album of President Woodrow Wilson’s trip to France in December 1918. (Bernath Mss 27).

Maps. Some maps, particularly hand drawn examples, remain in the manuscript collections. Holdings also include a number of printed maps, mainly World War I era Ordnance Survey maps of Belgium and France used by American and British forces, which have been kept together as a separate collection. (Bernath Mss 3).

Newspapers/Serials. Mainly short runs or single issues of U.S. and British titles, along with some Canadian, French, Belgian, and Chinese (English language) newspapers. Also included are newsletters and magazines issued by military units during the war and sometimes afterwards, with titles such as Camp Magazine [Spec D501 .C315], Dug-Out Gazette [Spec D526.2 .D83], Memories (Great Britain, 19th Regiment, London Old Comrades’ Association) [Spec D547.L6 M47], and Shaw War Bulletin [Spec D501 .S44].

Oral Histories. A number of interviews covering the life histories of individuals contain information about the World War I period. These include: Jack Colbert (who trained with E. Hemingway at Allentown, Penn., and was assigned to the French Army at Verdun as an ambulance driver); Katherine Esau (who lived in Russia during the war and the subsequent revolution); Anton K. Money (who tells the story of being on the parade ground headed for France when his mother had him pulled out of his unit. He had six brothers who were killed, which led to his decision to go to Canada and live away from civilization); Harry Morris (who, as part of the Great White Fleet, saw service on a U.S. destroyer in the English Channel and participated in the capture of a U-boat crew); and George J. Wittenstein (whose father was killed as a test pilot in one of Germany’s heavy bombers - the prototype of the airship used to bomb London).

Photographs and Illustrations. Original photographs and drawings can be found in a number of the manuscript collections. Printed sources include works such as The Century Edition De Luxe of Raemaeker’s War Cartoons [Spec D526.2 .R3]; Collier’s Photographic History of the European War [Spec D527 .C7 and Spec D527 .C715]; Sixteen Drypoints and Etchings: A Record of the Great War [Spec D527 .S6]; Laurence Stallings, The First World War: A Photographic History [Main and Spec D527 .S7]; The War Illustrated [Spec D522 .W36]; The War Pictorial [Spec D522 .W37 and Spec, Bernath DS777.53.P76 .W37], and Der Weltkrieg im Bild [Spec D522 .W5].

Posters. More than 100 color posters, primarily from the U.S. and Great Britain. Many relating to Liberty Loans, and the Red Cross, with captions such as "Food is Ammunition: Don’t Waste It." (Bernath Mss 2). Also, related works such as: Joseph Darracott, The First World War in Posters [Spec D522.25 .D36 1974]; The James Montgomery Flagg Poster Book [Oversize and Spec D522.25 .F55 1975]; Posters of World War I (printed by William Edwin Rudge for the Citizens Preparedness Association) [Spec, Printers Z239.R8 P65]; Walton Rawls, Wake Up, America! World War I & the American Poster [Spec D522.25 .R38 1988]; Sabine Reichel, What Did You Do in the War Daddy? A Visual History of Propaganda Posters [Spec D522.25 .S73 1983]; Maurice Rickards, Posters of the First World War [Main D522 .R5 and Spec D527.5 .R5 1968]; and George Theofiles, American Posters of World War I: A Price and Collector’s Guide [Spec D522.25 .T54 1973].

Sound Recordings. 78 rpm recordings, mainly songs from the World War I era, including: George M. Cohan, "Over There"; "How Ya Gonna Keep Em Down on the Farm?"; Jack Judge, "It’s a Long, Long Way to Tipperary"; Ivor Novellos, "Keep the Home-Fires Burning"; "Our Country’s in It Now"; and President Wilson’s War Message. Also, related printed items such as The Army Song Book [Spec M1646 .A74], issued by the War Department Commission on Training Camp Activities, 1918.

UCSB. During period from 1914 to 1918, the institution was known as the Santa Barbara State Normal School of Manual Arts and Home Economics. Edmund O’Reilly, in A History of Santa Barbara State Teachers’ College [Spec LD800.S32 O74 1928a], notes that President Clarence Phelps created a program for training soldiers in 1918, but the war ended before it was implemented. In the summer of 1918, however, nine war emergency courses were offered, in food conservation, fundamentals of food and nutrition, clothing economics, millinery, general lecture course, automobile work, emergencies and massage, club work, and extension Red Crosss. There also was a preparatory training course for nurses. The UCSB University Archives has some photographs, ephemera, administrative files, and records of Phelps’ tenure at the school for this period. The Edna Rich Collection also documents activities at the school through 1918.