Chemical Weapons in WWI

Mustard Gas Burns

Mustard Gas 

Soldiers in trenches, death by phosgene

Phosgene

Tear Gas (ethyl bromoacetate)

Initial Questions on The Great War:

1) When did WWI break out and who was on each side?

WWI began on July 28, 1914 with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. The two sides were known as the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance. The Triple Entente consisted of The UK, Russia, and France. The Triple Alliance consisted of Germany and Austria-Hungary.

2) When and why did the US get involved in WWI?

The US joined the war when the Lusitania was sunk by a German U-Sub. The US also intercepted a German telegram to Mexico known as the Zimmermann Note, in which Germany offered to help Mexico regain Texas.

3) What were the casualty rates for the various countries involved?

4) When and why did the war end?

The war came to a close because of all the men that were lost, specifically in Germany. After Germany moved toward peace, so did other Central powers. Fighting on the Western Front continued for a while, but eventually armistices were signed. The formal end of the war is the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, which essentially blames, and gives $20 billion debt to, Germany.

Array of Post Cards from the Great White Fleet:

*Carl is a fictional sailor on Admiral Emory's U.S.S. Rhode Island who then moved to Admiral Schroeder's U.S.S. Maine during resupply at Ceylon. He joined the Navy to prove his manhood and to traverse the world.

December 25, 1907

Dear Mom and Dad,

     This trip has only just begun and how wonderful it is! We'll be showing the world America's naval prowess. I am proud to be a part of this history-making journey.

     Two days ago we arrived in Trinidad, an island north east of Venezuela. I was expecting a parade with big crowds spectating and large bands marching upon our arrival on shore, but it was a rather quiet welcome. Although, with the governor being a British colonialist, I can see why he would not want to celebrate America's navy. 

     Despite the lack of pomp and circumstance, however, we are still enjoying our Christmas. This morning we gathered palm fronds, bamboo leaves, holly branches, and evergreen boughs to decorate the ships. Tonight we will be having a classic ham dinner and to hold us over until then, we have been snacking on the delicious and plentiful fruit their markets offer. Yesterday and today, boxing and playing with parakeets have filled my free time.

     I will keep you all updated as our fleet makes its way throughout the world.

With love,

Carl

April 24, 1908

Dear Mom and Dad,

     It has been a while since I sent you a post card! I apologize, as I told you I would update you as much as possible. I hope you all are well.

     Recently I have been very tired. I am not as chipper as I was upon our departure from Hampton Roads. Whenever we stop somewhere though, I am always revived by the happy faces, the kindness, the culture, and the food. A few days ago, we arrived in Los Angeles. It's so refreshing to be around people who have genuine patriotism. 

     I am completely amazed by the weather and scenery here. It's not too hot, not too cold, bot to humid, not too dry. The orchards stretch for miles, corralled by snow capped mountains and the peaceful Pacific in the distance. The whole essence of this place sums up for our main goal for this expedition; to establish a global environment of peace by the hands of Americans. It's not that we are better than other countries -- we simply realize, and have the power to maintain, that justice is the best policy.

Until next time,

Carl

July 22, 1908

Dear Mom and Dad,

     Before we depart from Hawaii today, I wanted to send you all another post card. 

     The heat in almost unbearable here. I suppose the natives have gotten used to it, but even after spending time on the (gorgeous) beaches in the (clear, blue) ocean I sweat constantly. 

     It's obvious we are here to clear relations between Queen Liliuokalani and ourselves. Unfortunately, I think it will be in vain. Almost all the places we've been before have welcomed us and tried to entertain us. Here though, we have had to entertain the locals.

     I am ready to come home. I'm tired, hot, and haven't slept in a proper bed in months. At least we are on the second leg of the journey.

Miss you,

Carl

October 19, 1908

Dear Mom and Dad,

     I thank God for the pleasure of writing this post card to you all. On the way here from our brief stop in Manila, our Great Fleet experienced a storm greater than even we could handle. Objectively, it is a miracle we only lost one man, given the waves taller than the boats themselves. Subjectively however, I lost one of my good friends on this voyage, William Fuller. As he yelled "So long, Fellas!" I think I began crying, but I could not feel my tears given the sheets of rain.

     We made it to Yokohama, Japan yesterday, escorted by sixteen Japanese battleships, one for each of our ships. This whole encounter is going to be so fake. I have been talking about it with the men. We are here to solidify the peaceful, cooperative American relationship with Japan, but so far they have just tried to show there military strength. Maybe I am just being hypocritical by criticizing them. 

     The common people are very nice though. The girls are beautiful and so are the silks they made specifically for us sailors. I am bringing one home for you mom!

Sincerely,

Carl

November 30, 1908

Dear Mom and Dad,

     Tomorrow we depart for the third leg of the journey. At Thanksgiving the cooks on board went all out with ham, pineapple, cranberry sauce and the like. Bands played all night to accompany our meal and celebration. During dinner, we were given the itinerary for the rest of the trip.

     As you can tell from the post card, we have spent the last few days in Manila. I originally thought that our visit here would be much like our stop in Hawaii; making amends with former rulers, but other issues took center stage. It has been rainy the entire time we have been here and there is also a cholera outbreak. I feel bad not only for myself and fellow men who did not get to spend much time on land, but for the people of Manila as well. It is obvious they put great effort, time, and money into preparing to welcome us. Hopefully our future stops will not be governed by the weather.

     I'm sure your Thanksgiving was a enjoyable as mine. I am missing you all very much.

With love,

Carl

December 18, 1908

Dear Mom and Dad,

     We were running low on coal and Boy! Did we choose the most interesting place to resupply! While here, I have eaten the freshest mango and pineapple I have ever eaten in my life. I got to drink milk from a coconut the size of my head. I even got to ride an elephant. 

     Every day, snake charmers would come on the boats and put on shows for us with there snakes and mongoose. If we paid enough money, he would get the snake and a mongoose to fight to the death.

     At first, I was surprised that the people wore so few cloths. I suppose the lack of cloths is a result of the poverty here in Kandy, Ceylon, but there is really no utility for the cloths. It's so hot and humid, despite the fact that it is December.

Have a Merry Christmas,

Carl

January 6, 1909

Dear Mom and Dad,

     I miss you all more than you know. I'm not the only one that's getting tired of this journey either. You can tell by looking at the boats themselves. The white paint is scraping off and there are barnacles covering the lower sides of the boats. 

     We have spent the last few days passing through the famous Suez Canal. It is a very slow process because of all locks and dams. Our boats are also very cumbersome. We only clear the sides of the canal by about twenty feet on either side.

     My fellow lower ranking men are happy to be so close to coming home, but we are ready for another excursion. Unfortunately, only higher ranking men get to go onshore in Cairo to visit the pyramids. The closet you and I will ever get to the pyramids is this post card.

With Love,

Carl

January 9, 1909

Dear Mom and Dad,

     know this post card is coming only a few days after my last one, but after the Christmas season, I could not help but share my excitement with you all. As I am in Admiral Schroeder's Division, we were assigned to visit Turkey. I have been in Smyrna for two days now. What I am so excited about though is all the ruins, especially in Ephesus; the same Ephesus from the Bible! Visiting renewed my faith, which I will admit was growing weary from this long journey.

     While we were here, the Turks tried entertained us, but they had been hit with some nasty earthquakes.  We are staying a few more days to help them recover. I sure, however, the Turks also want us to stay because of their current tension with Germany and Austria. Admiral Schroeder still insists we are neutral, but the Turks obviously don't believe so.

     I am happy to report that this will be my last post card. By the end of this month we will exit the Mediterranean Sea through the Strait of Gibraltar and set sail for Hampton Roads.

Sailing proudly,

Carl

Sources:

William Stuart's The Cruise of the Great White Fleet

Smithsonian Post Card Chronology

Library of Congress on The Great White Fleet

Department of the Navy on The Great White Fleet

Ceylon Post Card

Princeton on The Great White Fleet

Navy Girl Advertisement

Navy Wants Men Advertisement

Political Cartoons mirror the society in which they were created, giving historians information on what people of the time thought was funny and found to be pressing issues. Here are some political cartoons from the Philippine-American War.

Pro-Imperialism Cartoon

This cartoon features Filipino (school?) children knocking at Uncle Sam's home door, next to which his pet bald eagle proudly sits. Uncle Sam's home represents the United States ,as it is labeled so, and the school-aged Filipinos represent the belief that America needed to educate the Philippines. Some imperialists of the time listed education of the Filipinos, in accordance with Social Darwinism and Manifest Destiny, as a mean reason for annexation of the Philippines. 

Making Fun of America's Relationship with its Territories

This cartoon shows three savage-looking men (boys?) skipping happily with their American flags, ready to celebrate America's Independence Day. The three figures labeled are Hawaii, Cuba, and the Philippines. The situation portrayed by this cartoon is funny because it is extremely ironic. It makes readers ask "Why would our annexed territories want to be considered American, and then go celebrate American independence, when in becoming American they lost the opportunity for their own independence?" The intended audience for this cartoon is imperialists.

McKinley's Secrets from America

Here, a caricature of President McKinley guards a locked book representing the true, but hidden, brutalities initiated by Americans in the Philippines. Meanwhile, he puts his hand in the face of the on-looking, larger in body size (representing the actual size of the American population versus the individual president) man, labeled U.S. Many Americans supported the Philippine-American War until the awful acts to which the United States resorted became public. This cartoon is obviously post-publication and directed at all Americans, but specifically imperialists.

The most interesting thing I have learned in U.S. History so far, is how tycoons such as Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Vanderbilt came to such a status, depending on their own combinations of luck, hard work, opportunity, skill, and help from the Industrial Revolution. However, not everything was pleasant to learn about when studying the Industrial Revolution. In fact, I was almost brought to tears when I read about the children who, extremely tired after a fourteen hour work day, had water thrown in their faces to keep them awake. The documentary on the Triangle Shirt Waist Factory was equally depressing. Luckily, however, from these events and others like them, America came to the realization that labor laws regarding safety, hours, and wages are necessary for the working class. While I was unpleasantly surprised to learn about the horrors of work-life and home-life during the Industrial Revolution, the images of women jumping from buildings and children being maimed by machines will stick in my memory for at least the next ten years, if not the rest of my life.

     The terrible events that occurred during this time period and the motivation for each of the Industrial Revolution tycoons, have their roots in greed, as do the other time periods we have studied this semester. During the Civil War, yes, Southerners were fighting for the key to their livelihoods, but instead of having slaves, they could have had paid laborers and still made a profit. Because of their greed, they chose to demote African Americans to a less-than-human status in order to justify reducing their cost of living to an unacceptable rate.

     When America began to move West, railroad companies became the new face of American greed, providing desperate immigrants with jobs, sure, but again denying wages sufficient for comfortable lives. In the vastness of West, Americans were still greedy for wealth in land as well, pushing the Native Americans into reservations and harassing them even in their compliance. After the Industrial Revolution, the average quality of life thankfully began to rise, but the greed did not abate. Alternatively, a national spirit of materialism developed, manifesting itself in giant mail order catalogs and the appearance of special clothing for each event in the day, from cycling, to walking, to dining, to dancing, and to sleeping. Although we have not yet studied beyond 1920, I know that this materialism grew into an unmanageable, careless greed, peaking in the “Roaring Twenties” and collapsing in the Great Depression.

     Even today, greed defines our society. We are obsessed with the latest and greatest, and once we obtain whatever we have set our eyes on, be it an cell phone, a car, or a pair of shoes, we immediately take it for granted and move on to the next item on our lists. Although greed is the constant in American History, or at least the eras we have studied this semester, I would choose to call the period from 1865-1920 “The Age of Transformation.” From unit to unit, and within each unit, the American people, their values and livelihoods, have undergone continuous change. Black men gained the right to vote. Machines took over the American economy. With immigration, our culture became more diverse. Essentially, we grew to better respect our fellow man. 

The Gibson Girl's Guide to Glamor

 
When I initially started this project, I knew I wanted to do something with Charles Gibson's, a sketch artist for the New York Times, "Gibson Girl" of the Progressive Era (1890-1920). As I began research, I soon expanded my search to include the evolution women's fashion. My goal was to define how such evolution and the appearance of the Gibson Girl reflected the values and beliefs of society in the Progressive Era. In the first book I browsed through, I found the perfect quote to summarize my goal:

"The instrument of powerful and coquettish women, the fan both conceals and discloses. [Christian] Diors' comparison of the cocktail-party hostess and the eighteenth century woman denotes the relevance of clothing and decoration to the social function of women during these eras. While clearly ornamented differently, these personalities depended on a superficial facade through which to communicate their respective social facility."

- 100 Dresses[1]

A Gibson Girl has brains, beauty, and brawn. She is educated, clever, and can easily converse with men. It is highly possible she is a college graduate from a domestic studies program. She has an effortless beauty, inside and out. Her hair is piled atop her head in luscious curls, her makeup is light, and her outfits and accessories accentuate her figure. Her disposition is cheery, poised, and stately. She cycles, swims, takes walks in the park, attends important dinners, and dances at balls. She even has a specific outfit for each event. This seeming perfection is then spiced up with a more edgy, but still graceful, personality.  She smokes in public (with the men), shoots guns (with the men), and flirts often (with the men). [2] The Gibson Girl takes risks, thereby defying social norms and leading the young girls of the Progressive Era.

Scene with Idealized Gibson Girls

Simply put, the Gibson Girl was the ideal woman of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Women of ages 15-30 strove for her slim waist and lush hair. Charles Gibson had apparently planted the ideal woman in the minds of all Americans. She began to appear not only in the actual women of the Progressive Era, but on everyday items such as broomsticks, plates, parasols, and wallpaper. However, Gibson claims he would not have depicted the Gibson Girl in his drawings if he had "not already seen [her] in the papers." [2] It truly was a change in the minds of the women of this era which brought the changes in fashion and ideals. 

Charles Gibson's Drawings on Plates

Perhaps the Gibson Girl was a compromise between women's and men's views. Other women of the time were not striving to maintain their feminism, but to break past it in order to achieve other goals. This girl was the college girl. The college girl challenged the beliefs established in the Industrial Era such as "men hate intelligent wives" or "the man is the family's breadwinner." Some people even believed that higher education for women would result in women who were "unsexed" biologically, socially, and culturally. [3] Luckily, the women were not unsexed biologically, but they were, however, culturally and socially. Both the president of Harvard and the Theodore Roosevelt claimed that the best of American society would wane and immigrants would take over American society because educated women were not marrying, and/or having as many children, with educated men. The widely publicized Gibson Girl helped to soften this image for the college girl. The Gibson Girls' feminine features were the fan that concealed the acts of women desperately trying to challenge their own stereotype. [3] 

When looking at the fashions of the Gibson Girl and the college girl, there is a noticeable difference which solidifies the idea of the Gibson Girl as a compromise between women's and men's ideals in the Progressive Era. After tracing the minute differences in style year to year from approximately 1850-1920, I noticed several trends towards masculinity, somewhat contradictory to the still voluptuous-looking Gibson Girl. Ornamentation became subdued, the square toe appeared, more chunky heels (like men's army boots in WWI) came into fashion, and dark colors were more popular [4] [5]. These trends were most likely characteristic of the average woman trying to challenge the status quo, not by smoking in public, but by pursuing education in the arts and sciences.

The Gibson Girl style seemed to follow more of the freedom of art nouveau, with her S-shaped silhouette, Athenian inspired chignon, and the smallest waist achieved in the history of fashion. Everything was curvy, yet weightless, complimenting the flirtatious, yet graceful, personality of the idealized Gibson Girl. Essentially, Gibson girl fashion was "unencumbered by bustles and convention." [3] Before her time, women had flat front silhouettes with a bustle-built "table-top" silhouette in the back. Curls had been tight and precisely placed.

For fun, I tried to give myself a Gibson Girl up-do.

In the end, the Gibson Girl was loved by men and women alike in the Progressive Era because she was not too stuck in the past, but neither was she radically futuristic. She had the perfect balance of feminism and the bravery to challenge what was atypical for a woman. Her education gave substance to the entertainment of her beauty and escapades. This focus on outward appearance and need for specific fashions for individual occasions captures the arising materialism of the Progressive Era, while behind her concealing fan, the true Progressive women, the college girls, began their journey towards love (or at least appreciation) from the general populace.

[1] 100 Dresses
[2] This Fabulous Century 1900-1910
[3] The Gibson Girl Goes to College: Popular Culture and Women's Higher Education in the Progressive Era, 1890-1920
[4] Victoria and Albert Museum
[5] Costume and Fashion: A Concise History

This past weekend Randolph School put on a production of "To See the Stars," a play about the strikes of women shirt waist factory workers in New York City. Although the play was not about the Triangle Factory, it gave me perspective on the daily lives of the girls on strike and of the ethnic diversity among the girls. The play was very well done and I enjoyed watching my fellow students perform.