Featured Articles
WWI medals discovered after 100 years
Long ago, they stood at attention for a black-and-white panoramic photograph in Yorkville. Dressed in their military uniforms, they were awarded a medal. For some, however, the medal was never received. The Kendall County [...]
Kendall County Circuit Clerk seeks to return unclaimed historic World War I medals to veterans’ families
KENDALL COUNTY, IL -- Kendall County Clerk of the Circuit Court Matthew Prochaska, while digitizing court records from the turn of the 20th century, found a box of unclaimed World War I medals that were [...]
The Incredible True Story Of Elizebeth Smith Friedman, The ‘Mother Of Cryptology’ in WWI
American cryptologist Elizebeth Smith Friedman cracked codes during World War I, Prohibition, and World War II — but her accomplishments weren’t revealed until after her death. or decades, the United States had a secret weapon. [...]
The BAR Through World War I
America’s first light machine gun was yet another design from the man from Ogden. When we see John Moses Browning written out, it is usually followed with such adjectives as genius, iconic, brilliant and innovative, [...]
How Black WWI Veterans Shaped The Civil Rights Movement
The hundreds of thousands of African Americans who served in the U.S. Army during World War I and returned home as heroes soon faced many more battles over their equality in American society. While they [...]
During WWI, Missouri’s Home Guard filled in for the National Guard
The Great War depleted the states’ National Guard troops, sending them overseas. Missouri was one of the states that backfilled the domestic duties with unpaid volunteers. During World War I, Missouri was among a handful [...]
America’s WWI Commission on Training Camp Activities
Founding the Commission The idea for the Commission for Training Camp Activities (CTCA) emerged before the United States went to war. In August of 1916, with the prospect of American involvement in World War I [...]
American Failure: WWI Combat Aircraft Production
The United States did not produce any aircraft of its own design for use at the front during World War I. American industry did make two contributions to the airwar. Building the British designed DH-4, [...]
Philadelphia’s Little Italy Responds to Its Motherland’s Declaration of War in 1915
By May 1915, anticipation and apprehension had visibly increased within the Italian colony of Philadelphia. As the Chamber of Deputies in Rome deliberated the decision that would bring their nation to war, Philadelphia’s Italians gathered [...]
