1915 – Page 5 – Old Magazine Articles

The Western Front Elephant
(Der Welt Spiegel, 1915)

Animals have played important rolls in war from the beginning and World War One was no exception. Throughout the war the widespread use of dogs, horses mules and pigeons are all well documented and there have been some very interesting books written on the topic. Not so well documented is the presence of this one elephant who, being loyal to the Kaiser, is pictured in the attached photograph from 1915.

From Amazon: War Elephants

A Letter from the Freshly Dug Trenches
(New York Times, 1915)

This World War I letter makes for a wonderful read and it gives such a vivid picture of what the war must have been like once both sides had resigned themselves to trench warfare. The letter was dated October 8, 1914 and the British officer who composed it makes clear his sense that no war had ever been fought in this queer manner before.

A German Taube Monoplane
(The Nations at War, 1915)

A hand tinted colour photograph depicting a French biplane in pursuit of a German Taube.

W.B. Yeats and Those He Has Influenced
(Vanity Fair,1915)

With the publishing of the first part of his autobiography, Reveries Over Childhood and Youth, W.B. Yeats (1865 – 1939) got some attention in the American press. Here is a small notice from an American society magazine which praises his ability as an artist to influence other writers, such as George Bernard Shaw, John M. Synge, George Moore and Dr. Douglas Hyde.

London Society, 1915
(Vanity Fair, 1915)

Five months into the general unpleasantness going on across the Channel had transformed London into a very different city, and sadly, it was the leisured classes that had to shoulder most of the burden:

London is well worth living in these troubled days if only for its contrasts…The gloom of the streets, the sinister play of the searchlights, the abnormal hour at which the theatres open and and the public houses close, the fact that half the male population is in khaki and the other half would like to be, that Society is wearing Noah’s Ark clothes and that to buy a new hat is a crime, that there are no dances, no dinners, no suppers, no premieres, no shooting, no no posing, no frivolity, nor idling, it’s rather quickening, you know. But the searchlights have absolutely killed all practical romance.

British Offcer’s Boots
(Magazine Ad, 1915)

An illustrated magazine advertisement from 1915 which displays the variety of private purchase footwear available to British and Commonwealth officers during World War I.

British Officer’s Full Dress Caps
(New York Times, 1915)

Color illustrations of six full dress British Army service caps. Pictured are the dark blue caps worn by those who held such ranks as Aide-de-Camp to the King, Equerry to the King, Staff Officer, British Army Pay Officer and Army Medical Officer.

Francis Picabia
(Vanity Fair, 1915)

In 1915, the year before Dada was created, one of the movement’s followers, Francis Picabia (1879 – 1953), was spotted in New York City by the editors of VANITY FAIR who quickly put him through the works.

Isadora Duncan in Rye
(Vanity Fair Magazine, 1915)

Here is a paragraph about the school of dance that was maintained by Isadora Duncan in Rye, New York; the notice is illustrated by three stunning photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864 – 1952) depicting thirteen young girls in Grecian attire.

The British Officer’s Trench Cap of W.W. I
(Tatler Magazine, 1915)

Attached is a 1915 magazine ad from a British society magazine that illustrates the profile of the British Service Hat (trench cap). This wool headgear was worn by all British and Commonwealth forces prior to the 1916 introduction of the Brody Helmet (tin hat), which was issued in order to reduce the high number of head injuries.

Marcel Duchamp Returns to New York City
(Vanity Fair, 1915)

Exempted from serving with the French military in World War I, the artist Marcel Duchamp returned to New York City where he triumphed during the Armory Show of 1913 – together he and his two brothers, Raymond Duchamp-Villon and Jacques Villon, all showed their groundbreaking art. Marcel was the toast of New York and his modern painting, Nude Descending a Staircase was regarded as a masterwork.

In the attached VANITY FAIR article, Duchamp let’s it be known that he crossed the submarine-infested waters of the Atlantic to see American art.

Golf Accessories
(Vanity Fair Magazine, 1915)

If you intend to tarry on the links dressed in knickers, or plus fours, you will be needing a sturdy pair of ‘Scotch wool’ stockings in which to pull the look off; and should the assembled golf ruffians jeer at you from the comfort of the nineteenth hole, you can bludgeon them with your very smart, pleated golf gloves, circa 1915.

The British 1912 Officer Jacket
(West End Gazette, 1915)

The January, 1915, issue of The West End Gazette devoted three pages of tailoring instructions for British officer’s Khaki Service Jacket. The uniform was first issued in 1912:[P]The latest development in connection with military tailoring is the introduction of a new style of Service Dress for field wear. Its principal distinction from the styles that has superseded is the abolition of the time-honored stand collar in favor of the open step collar style as generally adopted for mufti garments.

The British Rage Against Pacifism
(The Literary Digest, 1915)

While Western Europe was all ablaze during the Spring of 1915, many Americans were tapping their toes to a catchy tune titled, I Didn’t Raise my Boy to be a Soldier (by Alfred Bryan and Al Piantadosi). This really irked the editors at THE SPECTATOR who let their fingers trip across the typewriter keyboard at a tremendous speed spewing-out all sorts of unflattering adjectives; they even went so far as to rewrite a few verses.

A Letter from the Trenches
(New York Times, 1915)

An interesting letter written during the opening weeks of the war by a Canadian officer stationed with a British Guard regiment. The letter is filled with earnest enthusiasm:

We are all one in aim, in spirit and in that indefinable quality of loyal co-operation which holds together the British Army fighting against enormous odds in France, as it binds together the British Empire by bonds not less strong because they are invisible.

Charles Baudelaire
(Vanity Fair Magazine, 1915)

British poet and literary critic Arthur Symons (1865 – 1945) wrote about the Nineteenth Century French poet Charles Baudelaire (1821 – 1867) more as a subject of art rather than an influential wordsmith:

Few modern poets have been more frequently drawn, and few have better repaid drawing, than Charles Baudelaire.

Among the list of artists who created likenesses of the poet were his fellow dandy Edouard Manet (1832 – 1883), the photographer Etienne Carjat (1828 – 1906) and an obscure sculptor named Zachari Astrue, who created the poet’s death mask.

Elihu Root Profiled
(Vanity Fair, 1915)

A photograph of Elihu Root (1845 – 1937) accompanies these two short paragraphs from the 1915 VANITY FAIR Hall of Fame, in which Root was praised as the ablest lawyer and diplomatic expert in the nation at that time. He is remembered today as the one U.S. Secretary of War (1899 to 1904) who was most instrumental in modernizing the American military in such ways that allowed it to meet the demands that would be meted out during the course of the bloody Twentieth Century.

This small notice is interesting primarily because it lets it be known that the United States was jockying for a spot in the European peace negotiations two years prior to even having troops in the field.Business ethics articles
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Business ethics articles
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Business ethics articles
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Etiquette in the Movies
(Vanity Fair, 1915)

No doubt, this is one of the funniest pieces you are likely to find on the topic of acting and costuming in silent movies. It was written by Frederick Lewis Allen (1890 – 1954) and Frank Tuttle (1892-1963); both men approached the movies with the low expectations that were probably all too typical of theater lovers at that time. Frederick Lewis Allen is best remembered today as one of the better chroniclers of the Twenties and author of Only Yesterday (1931) while Frank Tuttle would find himself, in a few short years, directing movies in Hollywood. Tuttle was one of the few Directors who successfully made the jump from silent films to sound and continued working; at this writing, he was an Assistant Editor at Vanity Fair.