Resources

World War I

First World War: The War to End All Wars, Michael Duffy

http://www.firstworldwar.com/index.htm

This website provides an overview of World War I through more than 60 essays, hundreds of encyclopedic entries, and a timeline. Primary documents include 252 resources on the war’s major diplomatic and military events, 83 diaries and first-hand accounts of soldiers and politicians, 139 photographs, and 150 audio files of songs and speeches. Documents include treaties, reports, correspondence, memoirs, speeches, dispatches, and accounts of battles and sieges. The site also provides 69 essays from 300 to 1,500 words in length on literary figures who wrote about the war. While admittedly not a “professional website” and a work-in-progress that is updated regularly, the site offers much material on the leaders who engaged their countries in war and on the experiences of ordinary soldiers who fought the battles.

World War I Sheet Music, Center for Digital Archives, Brown University

http://dl.lib.brown.edu/sheetmusic/ww1/index.html

This website offers an archive of nearly 2,000 pieces of sheet music printed during the First World War (1914–1918). The collection includes such diverse subjects as African-American soldiers, democracy, flags, marriage, and Woodrow Wilson, and it includes the work of such musicians as Irving Berlin, Eddie Cantor, and John Philip Sousa. The collection can be browsed by creator, publisher, subject, or titles and both basic and advanced searches are available. A general introduction and a historical essay are forthcoming. This website is a useful resource for historians of early 20th-century American culture or those studying material or visual culture.

World War I Document Archive, Jane Plotke, Richard Hacken, Alan Albright, and Michael Shackelford.

http://net.lib.byu.edu/~rdh7/wwi/

This massive archive contains hundreds of documents and thousands of images relating to World War I. With particular emphasis on military, diplomatic, and political dimensions of the war, the documents are arranged both chronologically and by type; including governmental documents, personal reminiscences, the war at sea, and medical aspects. An “image archive” currently contains two viewable sections—a photo archive of 1,844 images in 15 categories, including individuals, locations, heads of state, commanders, refugees, war albums, and animals; and “Medals of the Great War,” that provides photographs and 100-word descriptions. Last updated in July 2001, the image archive promises to include images of flags, maps, artworks, and ephemera in the future. The site also offers full-text reproductions of more than 50 contemporary and recent books, some of which cover participation in the war effort of African Americans, American Indians, and women; a biographical dictionary of 500–700 word entries for more than 200 names; a bibliographical essay covering more than 100 titles; and approximately 125 links to related sites. The authors—volunteers from a World War I electronic discussion network—encourage user participation in expanding the site, a valuable source for those studying military and diplomatic aspects of the war.