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The Louis Miller WWI exhibit materials collection is comprised of visual materials and realia displayed in an exhibit to mark the centennial of the Armistice in the autumn of 2018. The bulk of the materials pertain to the American Expeditionary Forces in the First World War.

The Louis Miller WWI exhibit materials collection contains visual materials and realia displayed in an exhibit to mark the centennial of the Armistice in the autumn of 2018. The bulk of the materials pertain to the American Expeditionary Forces in the First World War.

The largest part of the collection is postcards and ephemera belonging to Ole Reppe, a Wisconsin soldier who served in the 32nd Division. There are fifty-six postcards, four typewritten pages, and one ticket stub. The postcards date from 1917-1919, and follow Reppe's service in the Wisconsin National Guard and American Expeditionary Forces.

Eight postcards show scenes from Camp Douglas, Wisconsin. Two of these have inscriptions written by Reppe from August 1917 that describe the images. Two more date from 1920, with messages from his future wife Clara, and his mother. Both of these are written in Norwegian. Two postcards depict Janesville, Wisconsin.

Thirteen postcards show military training at an unidentified location. Six postcards date from Reppe's time in Texas in 1917, including a real photo postcard of an unidentified couple with a handwritten caption by Reppe that reveals he found this photograph on the street. This seems to reveal that unlike other WWI soldiers who took home postcards from France as souvenirs, Reppe was already collector before going overseas.

Five postcards date from Reppe's time in France, including one real photo postcard of German soldiers and women. Reppe notes that he found two of these postcards on the battlefield in October 1918, and German soldiers originally owned them. The remaining twenty-two postcards contain images of Koblenz (Coblenz), presumably purchased by Reppe while in the Army of Occupation in 1919.

Four typewritten military documents are in the collection, and date from August 27, 1917 to May 23, 1919. Two of these are leave passes, one is a list of men on guard duty, and one is a memorandum about sanitation at Camp Douglas. These items were all mounted on scrapbook paper, and it appears that Reppe kept these and some of his postcards in a now disbound scrapbook.

There is also a train ticket from 1917 from Stanley, Wisconsin to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin.

Also included in the collection is a British Lusitania Medal from 1916, with its original box and a paper fragment providing context to the medal. The sinking of the Lusitania by a German U-boat on May 7, 1915, caused the deaths of 1,198 passengers and crew, including 128 Americans. Although Germany protested it had every right to treat the Lusitania as an enemy vessel, the incident led to outrage in the United States and Britain. The medal in the collection is a British copy of a German medal made by the artist Karl Goetz after the incident. Though Goetz had intended his medal as a satire of British outrage over the Lusitania, the British disseminated over 300,000 translated copies of Goetz's work for English-speaking audiences. In spite of the misleading British description of the medal, the damage done by this piece of propaganda led to German authorities confiscating all known copies of the original medal. The German policy of unrestricted submarine warfare, which ended in September 1915 in response to American outrage over the Lusitania, started back up in early 1917 and became a major factor in America's entry into the war.

A 2018 restrike of Kerr Eby's "A Southern Unit" print from the original copper plate is also present. Canadian-American artist Kerr Eby created this powerful image representing the downtrodden state of African-American soldiers in France. Eby's service in the AEF turned him into an ardent pacifist. When America again entered a global conflict in 1941, Eby served in the combat artists program, mainly in the Pacific. He died in 1946 at his home in Norwalk, Connecticut, from a tropical disease contracted while covering the Second World War.

The collection has a photograph of Rosa Heidler Lorenz at the grave of her son Joseph Lorenz, at Suresnes, France, on May 18, 1930. In 1929, after a decade of political debate, President Calvin Coolidge signed a bill allocating five million dollars to subsidize pilgrimages to Europe for the mothers of deceased American soldiers buried overseas. In all, some 6,000 women chose to take the two-week trip to visit their sons' graves. These trips are known as the Gold Star Mothers Pilgrimages, and took place between 1930-1933. In a sad echo of the discrimination African-American soldiers faced more than a decade earlier, African-American mothers were segregated from their white counterparts during their pilgrimages. A significant number of mothers who went overseas were foreign-born and included many Germans. Rosa Heidler Lorenz was one such German immigrant. Her son, Private First Class Joseph Lorenz, was wounded in late July while fighting with the 42nd Division before dying of his wounds at a base hospital on November 21, 1918. In late May 1930, newspapers across the country published this moving image of Lorenz weeping at the grave of her son.

The collection contains a wooden clog painted with an American and French flag, with the inscription, "Souvenir de France." These clogs were a popular type of souvenir that soldiers often sent home to their families. Also included is a printed piece of sheet music from 1917 for the song "Hail! Hail! The Gang's All Here" and a copy of the printed exhibit bulletin from 2018.

This collection is made up of correspondence, military documents, photographs, printed items, and ephemera related to Dr. William Jason Mixter, who served in the United States Army during World War I, and his wife Dorothy.

This collection is made up of correspondence, military documents, photographs, printed items, and ephemera related to Dr. William Jason Mixter, who served in the United States Army during World War I, and his wife Dorothy.

The Correspondence series (1.75 linear feet) comprises the bulk of the collection. The first group of correspondence is made up of 48 letters and postcards that William Jason Mixter sent to his wife Dorothy from March 9, 1915-May 21, 1915. He described his voyage to Europe, his brief stay in England, and his experiences working in French hospitals near the war front. His letters include details about his work with specific patients, comments about the sinking of the Lusitania, and other war news.

William Jason and Dorothy Mixter wrote most of the remaining correspondence to each other between May 1917 and April 1918, while William served with Base Hospital No. 6 in France and Base Hospital No. 204 in Hursley, England. He shared anecdotes about his experiences and reported on his medical work. Dorothy provided news of their children and life in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Their correspondence includes letters, telegrams, and postcards. Other writers include Samuel J. Mixter, Jason's father, who wrote from Boston, Massachusetts, about his daily life and about his work as a medical inspector. Other soldiers, former patients, and acquaintances also wrote to members of the Mixter family.

The collection includes 25 picture postcards depicting French scenes during and after the war; 3 are integrated into the Correspondence series, and the remaining 22 are housed with the Printed Items and Ephemera series.

The Military Papers series is divided into three subseries. Chronological Military Papers (51 items) include memorandums, orders, letters, telegrams, and other items pertaining to William Jason Mixter's military service during World War I, particularly related to his discharge in 1919. The subseries contains a list of personnel who served at Base Hospital No. 6. The Account Book, Diagnosis Book, and Notebooks subseries (4 items) consists of William Jason Mixter's account book from the London City & Midland Bank (June 30, 1918-January 15, 1919), a diagnosis book regarding soldiers' complaints onboard the SS Northland from February 11, 1919-February 17, 1919, and a notebook with brief personal memoranda. William Jason Mixter kept a medical notebook during his time at Hursley Camp Hospital near Winchester, England. He recorded biographical and medical information about his patients, and information about medical treatments. The Hursley Camp Hospital volume enclosed numerous clinical record slips and other manuscript notes.

The American Women's War Hospital Documents (3 items), pertaining to an institution in Paignton, England, are comprised of a photograph of nurses and patients outside of the hospital (December 1914) and two bundles of letter typescripts that a nurse named Mary Dexter wrote to her mother about her work at the hospital (November 22, 1914-January 9, 1915, and January 15, 1915-July 16, [1915]).

The Writings series (10 items) contains 9 typed and manuscript poems, mostly related to American soldiers' experiences during World War I, on topics such as volunteering for the army, traveling overseas, and encountering death. The poems "The Americans" and "Only a Volunteer" are present in manuscript and typescript form, and "The Young Dead" and "The Woman's Burden" are attributed to female authors (Lilian Palmer Powers and Laura E. Richards, respectively). The final item is a typescript of a resolution presented at a social club encouraging its members to proclaim loyalty during the war.

The Photographs series (114 items) is comprised of 113 photographic prints and a 32-page photograph album; some images are repeated. Items include studio portraits of William Jason Mixter in uniform; group portraits of nurses, doctors, and other medical personnel; pictures of wounded and convalescent soldiers during and after operations; interior views of medical facilities; and views of buildings and destruction in France. The photograph album and 80 loose items are housed in the Graphics Division (see Alternate Locations for more information).

The Printed Items and Ephemera series (59 items) consists of 3 unique pamphlets; 18 unique newspapers, newsletters, and newspaper clippings; 28 unique ephemeral items; and 4 books.

The pamphlets include 5 copies of an article by William Jason Mixter entitled "Surgical Experiences in France," originally published in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal 173.12 (September 16, 1915), pp. 413-418. The other pamphlets are an advertisement for an "Exhibition and Sale of the War Cartoons by Louis Raemaekers" (October 1916), including an introduction and small reproductions of the drawings, and "Welcome Home," a book commemorating the return of the 26th Division in April 1919. Newspaper articles and other publications (including 6 items housed in Oversize Manuscripts) pertain to aspects of the war, particularly concerning medical personnel, civilian relief organizations, and the medical career of Samuel J. Mixter. A copy of The Boston Herald dated November 11, 1918, announces the Armistice.

The 28 ephemeral items include programs and advertising cards pertaining to church services held in honor of Base Hospital No. 6; the collection includes several copies each of 2 programs. Other printed items include a small map of Cambridge and Boston, a circular related to the Boston Society of Psychiatry and Neurology, and a book of stationery with engravings of Belgian scenes. A few personal items relate to the Mixter family, such as visiting cards on which William Jason Mixter wrote personal messages, cards from Mixter's children with sewn pictures, a certificate regarding Dorothy Mixter's service with the American Red Cross canteen, and a small French-language almanac affixed to a card with colored illustrations of the Allied Nations' flags. Three additional items pertain directly to the American Red Cross: the cover of the December 1918 issue of The Red Cross Magazine, a Red Cross service flag for display in a home window, and an American Red Cross canteen worker patch. Other insignia items are a button and ribbon commemorating the 26th Division's return to the United States and two small pins that belonged to William Jason Mixter. Also present is William Jason Mixter's passport, issued on February 6, 1915.

The 4 books include: The History of U.S. Army Base Hospital No. 6 (Boston, Mass.: 1924), given to William Jason Mixter, Jr., by his father; Independence Day in London, 1918 (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1918); The Old Humanities and the New Science... (London: J. Murray, 1919); and Dere Mable: Love Letters of a Rookie (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co., 1918).