1918

Articles from 1918

Over There’ by Albert Sterner
(Sea Power Magazine, 1918)

An American sailor in white uniform stands in the center bearing the Stars and Stripes, and at his side stands Columbia, in shining armor and with a drawn sword, pointing across the sea to direct the gaze of the sailor Over There to the battlefield of the nations, where he must carry his flag to victory for the sake of the free country whose uniform he wears. In the background beneath the flag is shown the battle fleet steaming out to sea.


– so wrote the editors of Sea Power Magazine who were so moved by the W.W. I U.S. Navy recruiting poster Over There by Albert Sterner (1863 – 1946) that all they could do was describe it’s powerful lines and overall design.

Trench Coats on Madison Avenue
(Magazine Advertisement, 1918)

The trench coat has become such a mainstay in the male wardrobe throughout the years it is difficult to imagine a time when the great shopping boulevards were without them. Perhaps the first men’s shops to offer them in the U.S. were on New York’s Madison Avenue: F.R. Tripler and Brooks Brothers, where the garments can still be purchased to this day. The attached vintage print ad was commissioned by F.R. Trippler for a gabardine trench coat as well as the sale of private-purchase flexible protective body armor. The body armor appears to have been modeled after a German design. The reader may be disappointed to learn that the Madison Avenue boutiques no longer offer body armor.

Baseball as Metaphor for War
(The Stars and Stripes, 1918)

In one of the first issues of the Stars & Stripes, it was decided to mark the historic occasion of the American arrival on the World War One front line with the always reliable baseball comparison. Printed beneath a headline that clearly implied that the war itself was actually the World Series sat one of the worst poems to ever appear on the front page of any newspaper:

The Boches claim the Umpire is a sidin’ with their nine,

But we are not the boobs to fall for such a phony line;

We know the game is fair and square, decision on the level;

The only boost the Kaiser gets is from his pal the Devil…

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The Dummy Horse Observation Post
(Popular Mechanics, 1918)

History’s ancient example of camouflage, the Trojan horse, has a modern twist in this illustrated article. The journalist reported that at some undated point earlier in the war the French had a chance to set a mock horse-carcass between the opposing trenches and use it as an observation post.

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Flag Day in Germany
(Punch, 1918)

A cartoonist at PUNCH MAGAZINE had a laugh at the expense of Germany and it’s humiliation during the first few days of the Armistice.

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Firing from the Rails
(Sea Power Magazine, 1918)

Illustrated with six photographs, this 1918 article is one of the first pieces of journalism to document the planning, construction, testing and deployment of the Railway Batteries that were manned by the U.S. Navy in W.W. I France.

They dreamed a dream wherein a squadron of colossal trains, sheltered in armor plate, cruised constantly on dry land behind the battle lines. On each train a hundred bluejackets and their officers lived, ate, slept and worked the giant guns that rested upon mechanically perfect mounts and hurled explosive shells to the limit of their extreme ranges. In short, they dreamed the United States Naval Railway Batteries just as complete to the firing lines a few months later.

An Interview With Mary Pickford
(Current Opinion, 1918)

When this two page profile appeared in print Pickford was world famous, married to the handsomest actor in Hollywood, adored by all – she could do no wrong. Just fourteen years later, the respected New York playwright Clara Boothe Brokaw would ridicule her in the pages of Vanity Fair (August, 1932: p. 18) as a sad symbol representing a vulgar era.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, today few people know who she was – although she does get twice as many Google searches than Lillian Gish (but whose counting).


Amazon offers a PBS salute to the actress on a DVD that is strangely titled Mary Pickfordstyle=border:none.

Enrico Forlanini and His Dirigible
(New York Times, 1918)

A New York Times photograph and report on the military dirigible designed by Italian Senator Enrico Forlanini (1848 – 1930). A concise account of the differences between Forlanini’s dirigible and the German Zeppelin are listed as well as the speed, altitude and various offensive capabilities. Enrico Forlanini is is best remembered today for his ground breaking work on steam-powered helicopters, hydrofoils and various other aircrafts, such as his 1909 dirigible, Leonardo Da Vinci.

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Christmas Shopping for the Doughboys
(Vogue, 1918)

These three pages were from the last of the two wartime Christmas issues American Vogue had managed to produce prior to the Armistice. Featured are some fashionable accessory items sold on New York’s Fifth Avenue that the Vogue editors deemed suitable for industrial warfare.


Click here to read about the Sam Brown Belt.

The U.S. Army Assault on November 11, 1918
(The Stars and Stripes, 1918)

This uncredited STARS and STRIPES article dwells on the same topic as the well-researched book by Joseph Persico, Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour: Armistice Day, 1918 (2003, Random House). For those who are curious about the violent climax of the war, this two page article will help you to understand which A.E.F. units were still attacking along what front at 10:59 a.m. on November 11, 1918.


Then a quite startling thing occurred. The skyline of the crest ahead of them grew suddenly populous with dancing soldiers… The Germans came with outstretched hands, ear-to-ear grins and souvenirs to swap for cigarettes.

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The Famous One: The Burberry Trench Coat
(The Stars and Stripes, 1918)

The trench coat, the submarine and the machine-gun were just a few of the innovations bequeathed to the modern world following the bloody brawl of 1914-1918. All three are still with us today, and one could even argue that, given the bitter peace that followed, these three were the only victors that emerged from that war. If that is the case, three cheers for Field Marshal Burberry and his legion of trench coats that have marched on every capitol city since that first autumn on the Marne!

Man and Horse and Equestrian Clothing
(Vanity Fair Magazine, 1918)

A smartly illustrated review of the the equestrian fashions for the year 1918. Various illustrated equestrian profiles are provided and brief attention is paid to the newest boots available at that time.

If you would like to read another article about men’s equestrian attire, please click here.

‘Patriotism”
(The Crisis, 1918)

An interesting editorial from World War I in which the writer (possibly W.E.B. Duboise) expressed that an African-American’s sense of patriotism in that era was based on the nation’s potential to be judicious and fair.


The article is a fine example illustrating the influence that George Creel and his Committee on Public Information had strong-arming the American magazine editors during the period of World War One.

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