JF Ptak Science Books   Quick Post

This is another in a long series of posts on my collection of WWI news service photos–there’s 75 or so up already though mostly in the WWI photography part of the blog’s bookstore.  Mostly the images were very heavily controlled by censers as to what content was allowable or not, and there was also very strict control of access to battlefield actions.  Simply put there was a long hearts & minds campaign of positive reinforcement exercised by allied high command in controlling wartime images–with the deaths of tens of millions of people there was simply no room to be let for any chance illustration of the great bleakness of this war to escape a censor’s detection.  Imaging the war would come in due course, but not necessarily during the fighting; and the coverage wasn’t necessarily “imaginative”, as it tended to be more exclusive and myopic. 

This photo is pretty upbeat, full of positive energy and life, and shows a group of female volunteers in a sea of clothing, having created the articles they are now folding the jerseys for shipment.  The faces are fresh, inviting, full, hopeful. 

The original photograph is available here.