The Great War at 100: Williams College and Beyond

Marking a century since the end of the First World War, and in conjunction with Williams courses to be taught in Fall Term 2018, the Special Collections department presents “The Great War at 100: Williams College and Beyond”.

In the Schow Gallery (Sawyer 455), items from the College Archives illustrate the wartime contributions of Williams students, faculty, and alumni, among them Major Charles W. Whittlesey, Class of 1905, of “Lost Battalion” fame, and Professor J. Norton Cru, who with his brother Albert left Williams to fight for their native France. Also in the Schow Gallery, from the Chapin Library, is a display of First World War posters which encouraged enlistment, charity to the troops, and patriotism.

In the Chapin Gallery (Sawyer 406), the collections of the Chapin Library tell the wider story of the war with contemporary photographs, satirical cartoons, notable poetry and prose, soldiers’ archives, and other publications, including a trench map of Ypres, an army engineer’s notebooks, a delegate’s copy of the Treaty of Versailles, and tourist guides to European battlefields.

“The Great War at 100” will be on view through the end of 2018, Monday through Friday from 10:00 to 5:00.

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