Media
Languages and the First World War
Languages and the First World War is a cross-disciplinary research project exploring change within languages and how languages influenced each other during a period of crisis and conflict.
https://languagesandthefirstworldwar.wordpress.com/
English Words in War-Time, Tracking Language on the Move in WW1
In a series of blogs, the ‘English Words in War-Time’ project tracks a detailed and largely unexamined record of language by Andrew Clark on the Home Front, and the reporting of war in a critical period of social and historical change.
https://wordsinwartime.wordpress.com/
Audio
The Virtual Gramophone, Library and Archives Canada
The Virtual Gramophone hosts a sample of Canadian music from the First World War. It also provides biographical articles of musicians with digitized historical material which explain the musical developments of the time.
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/gramophone/028011-3010-e.html
Library of Congress, National Jukebox, Historical Recordings
The National Jukebox of the Library of Congress makes historical sound recordings available to the public free of charge. The Jukebox includes more than 10,000 recordings made by the Victor Talking Machine Company between 1901 and 1925.
Cartoons
British Cartoon Archive, University of Kent
The British Cartoon Archive at the University of Kent’s Templeman Library holds collections by over three hundred cartoonists. Many of these have been digitised and catalogued, and can be found among the 170,000 digitized items on the BCA website.
The Daily Telegraph war cartoons
A collection of First World War cartoons from the Daily Telegraph, uploaded to Flickr by the State Library of New South Wales.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/statelibraryofnsw/sets/72157660808732151
JM’s World War One Sketchbooks
A collection of illustrations from a set of two World War One sketchbooks uploaded by the University of Victoria’s Special Collections Library. The collection contains watercolour and pen and ink images produced by a British soldier stationed in France and Belgium between 1917 and 1918.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/128520551@N04/sets/72157653843591602
Louis Raemaekers Foundation
A website dedicated to the Dutch artist Louis Raemaekers. It includes a gallery showing of many of his works.
Canadian Letters and Images Project, Vancouver Island University, Department of History
An online archive of the Canadian war experience (various wars, including WWI) as told through the letters and images of Canadians themselves. The collections include correspondence, diaries, photographs, postcards and other miscellaneous items. All correspondence has been transcribed, retaining the original spelling, punctuation and paragraph formatting. When available, the transcriptions are accompanied by scans of the original pages.
Bund Deutscher Philatelisten e.V.
A collection of German armed forces’ correspondence with friends and family from 1914-1918.
http://www.exponate-online.de/e_exponat.asp?a=1&e=27
Feldpost aus dem Ersten Weltkrieg, Museumsstiftung Post und Telekommunikation
With over 700 examples of personal letters, parcels, and post cards, this collection consists of first-hand German accounts of the First World War.
https://www.briefsammlung.de/feldpost-erster-weltkrieg/
Letters of 1916, Maynooth University
A crowd-sourced digital collection of letters written around the time of the Easter Rising (1 November 1915 – 31 October 1916).
http://letters1916.maynoothuniversity.ie
Tagebücher, Württembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttgart
The Württembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttgart hosts four diaries of participants in World War I, as well as some letters. The materials are in German.
http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/?id=6857
La Grande Guerra 1914-1918, L'Espresso
A digital collection of Italian diaries during the First World War, which are searchable by theme, author or location.
https://espresso.repubblica.it/grandeguerra/index.php?ref=twhe
Voci della grande guerra
A digital archive of Italian soldiers’ writings from the First World War. The texts, chosen by historians and linguists, are intended to represent the various and diverse ways of describing and narrating the First World War.
http://www.vocidellagrandeguerra.it/
Prozhito
A database of 140,000 digitised Russian diaries from 1700-2000, including many written during the First World War.
Das Kriegstagebuch des Alfred Hermann Fried
A digital version of the diaries kept by Austrian journalist and pacifist Alfred Hermann Fried (1864-1921).
Film
WW1 – The Definitive Collection, British Pathé
The British Pathé was a film, newsreel and music company founded in Britain in 1910, and is now a newsreel archive containing 85,000 films. Its World War I archive is sorted into over 50 categories and contains more than 100 historical films.
http://www.britishpathe.com/workspaces/page/ww1-the-definitive-collection
Australians at War Film Archive, Australian Government, Department of Veterans' Affairs
The Film Archive “Australians at War” is an Australian Government initiative designed to film and record the stories of over two thousand war veterans who served from World War I to today in the Australian Defence Force.
http://australiansatwarfilmarchive.unsw.edu.au/
1914-1918, ARD
This media library provides television programmes and articles about the First World War. The website is in German.
European Film Gateway
The EFG Portal provides access to hundreds of thousands of film historical documents as preserved in European film archives and cinémathèques: photos, posters, programmes, periodicals, censorship documents, rare feature and documentary films, newsreels and other materials.
http://www.europeanfilmgateway.eu/
Der moderne Krieg im Film / Modern War on Screen, Erich Maria Remarque-Friedenszentrum Osnabrück
This database presents information on international war and anti-war films of all genres, from feature films to documentaries. It provides details (title, year of production, director, actors, etc.) as well as film abstracts and short biographies of those participating. Furthermore, the database offers information on the films’ whereabouts in national archives, their availability on various media platforms, and selected bibliographic references. A detailed keyword-index enables searching by war, topic, motif or certain film-specific expressions.
Erster Weltkrieg, Filmportal
A collection of German video footage from the First World War.
https://www.filmportal.de/videos?field_video_title_value=&field_video_thema_target_id%5B689%5D=689
Focus on film: The Great War, National Archives Learning Curve
A collection of short clips with background information from The National Archives’ Film Archives. The material is predominantly from 1915-16 and focuses on the Battle of the Somme.
Colonial Film. Moving Images of the British Empire, Arts and Humanities Research Council
The colonial film archives contain footage from the former British empire, including reports on the First World War.
http://www.colonialfilm.org.uk/home
Estonian Film Archives
More than 600 archives have registered and digitized their material. The growing archive contains over 275,000 film, photo, and video sources.
http://www.eha.ee/fa/public//index.php?lang=en&lch=2&lch_gen=2&act=default&nocache=142199868
Literature & Poetry
The First World War Poetry Archive, University of Oxford
An online repository of more than 7,000 items of text, images, audio and video. The archive consists of collections of primary material from major poets of the period. This is supplemented by a comprehensive range of multimedia artefacts from the Imperial War Museums, a separate archive of over 6,500 items contributed by the general public (see “The Great War Archive” at http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/gwa/), and a set of specially developed educational resources.
http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/
Sassoon Journals, Cambridge Digital Library
This collection contains digitized 23 diaries written by Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967), one of the British War Poets.
http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/sassoon
World War I, David Rumsey Map Collection, Cartography Associates
A digitized sample (32,000 items) of the David Rumsey Map Collection (150,000 maps), allowing viewers to access and then compare, analyze and view items in new and experimental ways. The collection focuses on rare 18th and 19th century maps of North and South America, but also has maps of the world, Asia, Africa, Europe and Oceania. The collection includes atlases, wall maps, globes, school geographies, pocket maps, and more. Items range from about 1700 to the 1950s.
http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/s/9p93g9
Map Archive, University of Halle-Wittenberg
A German-language collection of more than 100,000 maps, including many relating to WWI
http://bibliothek.uni-halle.de/sammlungen/kartensammlung/
The Geography of the Great War, Frank McMurray, Internet Archive
Digitized copy of the 1919 edition of Frank McMurray’s book The Geography of the Great War, containing various maps, photos, and charts listing population and military statistics.
https://archive.org/details/geographyofgreat00inmcmu
Campaign Atlas to the Great War, West Point Academy, Department of History
A database of campaign and battle maps from WWI.
http://www.westpoint.edu/history/SitePages/WWI.aspx
World War I Sheet Music, Brown University Library Center for Digital Scholarship
In association with the John Hay Library, Brown University’s collection of World War I sheet music and cover art aims to preserve the many types of popular music in the United States during the First World War.
https://library.brown.edu/cds/sheetmusic/ww1/index.html
Sheet Music Collection, University of Missouri Kansas Digital Special Collections
The University of Missouri-Kansas provides digitized original sheet music from the United States. Sheet music for both World Wars can be found in this collection.
https://dl.mospace.umsystem.edu/umkc/islandora/object/umkc:sheetmusic
Liste der digitalisierten Zeitungen, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin
The Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin provides digital copies of 171 German and foreign German-language newspapers. The database and newspapers are in German.
http://zefys.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/list/
Zeitungsportal NRW, zeit.punkt NRW
Funded by the federal state of North Rhine Westphalia, this project aims at digitizing local newspapers from North Rhine Westphalia from the period of 1801-1945.
Aera
In 2014, the magazine Aera republished newspaper articles that had been published exactly 100 years ago in Germany.
The Stars and Stripes: The American Soldiers' Newspaper of World War I, 1918-1919, Library of Congress
The complete edition of the newspaper, “The Stars and Stripes,” published in France by the United States Army from February 1918 to June 1919. The eight-page weekly featured news, poetry, cartoons and sports coverage.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/sgphtml/sashtml/sashome.html
Photo Archive, LIFE Magazine
World War I photographs in the LIFE photo archive, hosted by Google.
Feldzeitungen aus dem 1. Weltkrieg – online, Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg
An online archive of 19 German and French language “trench papers” from World War I, digitalized and published by the University of Heidelberg Library.
http://feldzeitungen.uni-hd.de
Historische Bestände - digital, Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg
The University of Heidelberg's digital collection contains a wealth of historical sources including a large collection of German books, newspapers and magazines.
http://www.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/helios/digi/digilit.html
Die Kriegssammlung der Fürstlichen Bibliothek Detmold, Lippische Landesbibliothek
An online archive of 42 German soldier newspapers from World War I, digitalized by the Lippe State Library (Lippische Landesbibliothek).
http://s2w.hbz-nrw.de/llb/nav/classification/1086972
Jüdische Periodika 1806-1938, Compact Memory, RWTH Aachen University
An online archive of Jewish newspapers and periodicals from 1806 to 1938.
ANNO – Austrian Newspapers Online, The National Austrian Library
An online archive of Austrian newspapers and periodicals from 1700 to 1941. There is also a section, “Extraausgaben des 1. Weltkrieges,” containing newspapers’ special editions – often only a single page – during WWI.
Luxemburgensia online, The National Library of Luxembourg
An online archive of the Luxembourg National Library’s collection of newspapers, periodicals, literature, reference works and post cards. Of primary relevance for WWI research is the postcard collection.
http://www.luxemburgensia.bnl.lu/cgi/home.pl?
Dutch newspaper database 1618-1995, Koninklijke Bibliotheek / Historische Kranten
A collection of Dutch newspapers from 1618 to 1995; Dutch-language only.
Trove, National Library of Australia
The Trove database offer 488,292,314 digitized historic books, images, newspapers, maps and more.
Biblioteca Virtual de Prensa Historica, Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte
The Virtual Library of Historical Newspapers has digitized thousands of historical newspapers from the Spanish-speaking world and includes the ability to search for any word on any page of any digital newspaper.
Hemeroteca Digital, Biblioteca Nacional de España
Hemeroteca Digital is part of the Biblioteca Digital Hispánica project, providing public access to the newspaper collection of Biblioteca Nacional de España.
http://www.bne.es/es/Catalogos/HemerotecaDigital/
1914-1918 Der Erste Weltkrieg im Spiegel hessischer Regionalzeitungen, Hessisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst
A collection of regional newspapers from Hesse during the First World War.
Bibliothèque Numérique de Lyon
The bibliothèque numérique de Lyon digitized French trench logs and trench newspaper from the First World War.
http://numelyo.bm-lyon.fr/BML:BML_02PER01001COL00002?&hitPageSize=6&hitTotal=11&hitStart=7
The Belgian War Press
The Belgian War Press presents a digitized collection of over 100 Belgian newspapers which were written or distributed secretly during the First and Second World Wars. In addition, the website offers information on clandestine Belgian newspapers as well as on Belgian press censored during the First World War.
http://warpress.cegesoma.be/en
News of the Great War
A digital collection of press material published in Belgium during the First World War. Users can browse through 360,000 pages worth of trench papers, underground press, newspapers, magazines, pamphlets and leaflets.
https://hetarchief.be/
Russian newspapers of the Great War and Civil War 1914-1922
A project digitizing Russian newspapers of the Great War and Civil War 1914-1922. The Project is carried out under the auspices of INION RAS (Institute of Scientific Information for Social Science, Russian Academy of Science) and History of Motherland Foundation.
http://newspapers.historyrussia.org
World War I Pamphlet Collection, UNCG Digital Collections
This collection of 412 pamphlets from the First World War contains pamphlets on military campaigns, women's labour and civilian support of the war.
http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/cdm/worldwaripamphlets
World War I Pamphlet Collection, Penn Libraries
This collection of World War I pamphlets, hosted by Penn Libraries, contains pamphlets from America, Britain, France and Sweden.
LUCERNA – the Magic Lantern Web Resource
LUCERNA is an online resource on the magic lantern, an early slide projector invented in the 17th century. This database includes details of slide sets, slide images, readings and other texts related to slide sets, lantern hardware, people and organisations involved in lantern history, and much more, including slides from the First World War.
Allied Posters of World War I, Temple University Libraries
This collection, by Temple University Libraries, contains over 1,500 posters from the allied powers in World War I.
http://digital.library.temple.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/p16002coll9
French World War I Posters, University of Illinois Library
This website presents digitised versions of 105 posters from the University of Illinois archives that were published in France during the First World War. Each poster is accompanied by a transcription of the French text and an English translation.
https://digital.library.illinois.edu/collections/8116a380-e3fb-012f-c5b6-0019b9e633c5-c
Canadian Wartime Propaganda, Canadian War Museum
This database of war posters is from the collection of the Canadian War Museum. The database is available in French and English.
http://www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/exhibitions/propaganda/collection_e.shtml
Canadian Posters from the First World War, Ontario Ministry of Government and Consumer Services
The Archives of Ontario provides numerous high definition Canadian posters from the First World War relating to both military and civilian life. The exhibit consists of posters relating to Victory Bonds, The Canadian Patriotic Bond, increasing production, recruitment, and a poster gallery.
http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/en/explore/online/posters/index.aspx
War Poster Collection, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections Division
This database of World War I and II posters, hosted by the University of Washington Libraries Special Collections Division, includes examples of Dutch, German, American and British posters.
http://content.lib.washington.edu/postersweb/
World War Poster Collection, UNT Digital Library
This collection of war posters includes French, American and German posters which exhort the civilian populations to buy war bonds, support the war and help to provide food aid.
http://digital.library.unt.edu/explore/collections/wwpc/browse/?fq=untl_decade%3A1910-1919
American War Posters from the First World War, Bancroft Library
168 digitized American posters from World War I, hosted by Bancroft Library.
Plakat-Datenbank der Bibliothek für Zeitgeschichte: Ausschnitt Erster Weltkrieg, Württembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttgart
This collection of German posters from the First World War, hosted by the Württembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttgart, includes proclamations from German military authorities in the occupied territories. The database and posters are in German.
http://avanti.wlb-stuttgart.de/bfz/wk1plakat/
"Take Up the Sword of Justice," British Posters of World War One from the Roger N. Mohovich Collection, Georgetown University
The online exhibition displays 25 British posters created during WWI and held by the Roger N. Mohovich Collection.
Canadian War Posters, McGill University Library Digital Collections
The holdings of the Print Collection in the Rare Books and Special Collections Division include some 250 Canadian posters from the two World Wars. The website contains basic descriptions in French and English and images of each poster, an artist index, a search function, and an essay about Canadian War Posters. The search function enables users to search by World War, category, artist and keyword.
http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/warposters/
Postcards
14-18: La Suisse en cartes postales (14-18: Switzerland in Postcards), Université de Fribourg
The digital collection “14-18: La Suisse en cartes postales (14-18: Switzerland in Postcards)” was created at the Université de Fribourg with postcards from the holdings of the Swiss National Library in Bern. The postcards have been arranged around six themes, for example “propaganda & ideology” and “humour & satire”. The website is in French.
World War I Postcards from the Bowman Gray Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
This collection of First World War postcards includes French, American and Russian postcards. The database is in English, and English translations are provided for postcards in other languages.
http://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/search/collection/graypc
World War I Photograph Albums and Postcards, The New York Public Library Digital Collections
This collection from the New York Public Library consists of four exhibitions titled, Under the Red Cross flag at Home and Abroad: Base Hospital Unit #44 and Evacuation Hospital #5, German World War I Photographs and Postcards, Photographs of World War I Battlefields, Captured German Installations and Allied Installations, and Usines Delahaye; collaboration des femmes a la defense nationale, guerre europeenne.
Picture Postcards from World War I, zeno.org
An online collection of picture postcards from WWI, grouped into categories such as “regimental jobs” and “beer and games”.
http://www.zeno.org/Bildpostkarten/M/Erster+Weltkrieg
Historische Bildpostkarten, Universität Osnabrück, Sammlung Prof. Dr. S. Giesbrecht: Der Erste Weltkrieg auf der Bildpostkarte
The database contains more than thousand picture postcards produced during WWI, sorted by categories such as “war propaganda” and “music and songs”.
https://bildpostkarten.uni-osnabrueck.de/
First World War postcards from the George Eastman House
A collection of Entente postcards, mostly French, uploaded to Flickr by the George Eastman House.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/george_eastman_house/sets/72157608880152065
