Including items like the war diary of pioneering brain surgeon Harvey Cushing (Class of 1891), an autographed photo of Colonel Edward House and President Woodrow Wilson, original works from artist George Bellows’ “War Series,” and much more, Yale’s collections offer a treasure trove of historical documents and ephemera from the First World War. Browse some of the most interesting above.
Yale collections are time capsules of the people and politics of WWI
Housed across campus, Yale collections offer a treasure trove of historical documents and ephemera from the First World War.
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1 / 13An autograph album, with numerous notes and photographs, compiled by Patricia Young, nurse of the Volunteer Aid Detachments, while she was stationed at a Red Cross Hospital in Dumfries, Scotland, 1914-1917. Yale Center for British Art. -
2 / 13Selection of postcards from "Collection of WW1 Ephemera, 1914-1918," Yale Center for British Art, Friends of British Art Fund. -
3 / 13“Field Service Post Card,” 1916, Yale Center for British Art, Friends of British Art Fund. The Army Postal Service censored communications through standardized cards, which carried a set of messages on one side that could either be checked or deleted, allowing soldiers to communicate essential information to loved ones. -
4 / 13Posters created for the U.S. Food Administration: Harvey T. Dunn, “Victory is a Question of Stamina,” 1917; J. Paul Verrees, “Can Vegetables, Fruit, and the Kaiser, too,” 1918, Purchased through the Kent Ellis Fund 2010, Cushing/Whitney Medical Library. -
5 / 13Frederick G. Cooper posters, 1917, Cushing/Whitney Medical Library, Purchased through the Lucia P. Fulton Fund 2010: “Food/don’t waste it,” and “Save/and serve the cause of freedom.” -
6 / 13"The American Commission to Negotiate Peace," including Colonel Edward House (far left) and President Woodrow Wilson (center). Each participant has autographed the photo. Colonel Edward M. House Papers, Manuscripts & Archives, Yale University Library. -
7 / 13A page from the war diary of Harvey Cushing (Class of 1891) — considered the father of neurosurgery — who filled several volumes with notes and memorabilia from WWI. Here, he describes operating on wounded “heads” from the Battle of the Marne in July 1918. Cushing/Whitney Medical Library. -
8 / 13Wounded soldiers are loaded for transport at Mobile Hospital No. 39 in France — The Yale Unit — organized by Joseph Flint, Professor of Surgery at the Yale School of Medicine. Joseph Marshall Flint Papers (Box 2), Manuscripts & Archives, Yale University Library. -
9 / 13F. Trubee Davison, while in aviation training with the first Yale Unit in West Palm Beach, Florida, ca. 1918–19, F. Trubee Davison papers, 1882-1961. Manuscripts & Archives, Yale University Library. -
10 / 13Poems by Wilfred Owen, a British poet and soldier, and one of the leading poets of the First World War. Fellow British poet and mentor, Siegfried Sassoon (whose work is also in the collection) provides an introduction. London: Chatto & Windus, 1920, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. -
11 / 13A crowd forms outside the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, following the formal declaration of war, July 20, 1914. Romanov photograph album, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. -
12 / 13From the Yale University Art Gallery: George Bellows, "Base Hospital, No. 1," from the "War Series," 1918, lithograph, 1987.1.92; Max Beckmann, "Weeping Woman (Weinende Frau)," 1914, etching and drypoint, Stephen Carlton Clark, BA 1903, Fund, 1971.77. -
13 / 13WWI Medal from France, 1915, bronze, transfer from the Yale University Library, Numismatic Collection, 2001, Yale University Art Gallery, 2001.87.29484.
