Good news! Tomorrow evening (Nov. 27) C-SPAN3 will begin airing the talks from the annual symposium of the National World War I Museum and Memorial held earlier this month in Kansas City. It looks like there are a few talks that will be aired at a later time, including Margaret MacMillan’s keynote address.
Month: November 2019
In the spring of last year John Singer Sargent’s iconic work was displayed at the National World War 1 Museum in Kansas City.
The famous photograph shown above, also from the Imperial War Museum Collection, may have inspired Sargent. The image was taken at an Advance Dressing Station near Béthune, France on April 10th, 1918.The gassed soldiers are from the 55th (West Lancashire) Division, a territorial force formation, which single-handedly stopped a German advance towards the vital rail center at Hazebrouck. The 55th had been paired with the Portuguese 2nd Division, which quickly broke into a full rout, leaving the ‘terriers’ alone in the line for over three days. Although the combat was intense, they didn’t yield.
Theatre Latte Da from Minneapolis, MN, has made a Christmas tradition of a musical they created based on the 1914 Christmas Truce. This has been very successful for them, and in past years they’ve had a touring company as well as the production in the home theater.
It’s good to see there are still some museums in Kansas that are recognizing the Great War, even as the Centennial winds down. The Butler County Historical Society in El Dorado recently opened an exhibit with the above title. The Butler County Times Gazette ran a few photographs from the opening:
We’ve always tried to post the Educator’s Newsletter created by the National World War I Museum and Memorial. We do so again with this month’s newsletter, with the above title:
We’ll also add to this post that the Museum and Memorial held its annual symposium this past Friday and Saturday with the theme: 1919: Peace? All sessions were taped for later viewing on C-SPAN, probably early in the new year. The sessions were excellent, so you probably won’t want to miss them, and we’ll try to give you some advance warning as to when they will air.
Recently I was called into the Shawnee County District Court for jury duty. Initially there’s always a bit of waiting before you discover your fate as a juror or a free man. While waiting I took a look at the photos and other items that graced the hallway of the court house, telling something about the County’s legal history.
We have a few WWI-themed movies showing on Turner Classics this month, including two versions of Waterloo Bridge. As usual, all times are Central.
–Waterloo Bridge (1931). The story of a ballerina sinking into prostitution after her husband is reported killed in WWI. This version is directed by James Whale (Frankenstein) and stars Mae Clarke and Kent Douglass. It’s at 5:00 a.m November 5th–sorry for the short notice.
Regular readers may recall that I posted about Metcalfe’s project to find and properly mark all burials in the U.S. of persons who served in the British Imperial Forces in World War 1, and in August of 2017 I reported that his project had located two such burials in Kansas, You can read about this by clicking here.
You may have seen this clip on CBS Sunday Morning, which looks at Hoover’s life, including the Belgian relief effort.