World War I Postcards

52,126 Total

1,565 Online

DESCRIPTION

The collection’s 52,000 postcards depict the participants of the Great War through rich illustrations and photography. As the most popular mode of communication of the time, the postcard medium played many important roles throughout the first global conflict. Professional and amateur artists presented a “staged” portrayal of the war and, in parallel, captured a “documentary” record. Postcards actively participated in the war’s course, laden with propaganda promoting national unity and hatred of the enemy. Furthermore, they carried a lifeline of messages between loved ones. As the war dragged on, the breadth and scope of topics expanded to include every aspect of its all-encompassing experience: from military action, artillery, and leaders to basic human needs, relationships, and wartime hardships under extraordinary circumstances.


SUBJECTS
Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, declaration of war and mobilization, political and military leaders, battles and battlefields, weapons, military transportation, modes of communication, prisoners of war, women in the war, daily life in the trenches, recreation and entertainment, hygiene, medical services and personnel, children in the war, animals in the war, labor army, propaganda, holidays and religion, destructive effects of war, maps and timelines, and victory. 

DATES

1913-1920

PROVENANCE

The collection was assembled over the course of 40 years by a German deltiologist and acquired by the Blavatnik Archive in 2014 from an anonymous postcard dealer.

HIGHLIGHTS

"Protection Exercises," ca. 1908

"Protection Exercises," ca. 1908

German troops posing, ca. 1909-1913

German troops posing, ca. 1909-1913

German cavalry parade, ca. 1913

German cavalry parade, ca. 1913

Officer's servant table, 1913

Officer's servant table, 1913

German military medical services, ca. 1916

German military medical services, ca. 1916

"We must and we will succeed," 1915

"We must and we will succeed," 1915

Wounded soldiers with instruments and a nurse, ca. 1914-1918

Wounded soldiers with instruments and a nurse, ca. 1914-1918

American YMCA illustrated postcard with flags of the Allied Forces of World War I, ca. 1914-1918

American YMCA illustrated postcard with flags of the Allied Forces of World War I, ca. 1914-1918

German soldiers piercing the map of Russia with bayonets, 1914

German soldiers piercing the map of Russia with bayonets, 1914

"Real images of the World War. Listening post in a mine crater," 1917

"Real images of the World War. Listening post in a mine crater," 1917

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