 Rene, the current exhibit here at the Ocean Map Library is about World War I. Tell us a little bit about it. So this exhibit is really showing how Americans viewed World War I, what items they used to understand Germany as an enemy, to understand the conflict as it was unfolding in Europe. So they really did rely on print materials, maps and newspapers, maps made by allies, images on posters, or in magazines. And how did it help them understand this thing? For example, certain maps, how did that help them understand what was going on? Well, first of all, it allowed them to understand the geography of the war front, which, like today, they may have not been quite familiar with, being a continent away. It also helped them really understand how their allies or future allies were perceiving the enemy, how they were planning to conclude the conflict. There's a presumption, I think, when people look at a map, that whatever is in the map is truthful is correct, because some cartographer went through and did exact measurements. But that's not necessarily always correct. Absolutely. So maps have a wonderful skill. They're really wonderful propaganda because they are assumed to be truthful. They have this connotation of being set apart from societal beliefs. They have this connotation of being a mathematically derived representation of an area. So they carry a lot of weight in terms of propaganda ability. Our first step is a persuasive map. What kind of map is that? So this is a sort of map that it's not just showing geography. It's showing geography in such a way that it attempts to persuade the viewer to entertain certain beliefs about the war and about the participants in the war. But how did it do that? Well, for this one, it has colored in red all of the areas that German leaders have thought, as it says. So usually politicians, writers, had expressed interest in areas where they expressed, this might be a good piece of land for Germany, for the empire to have control of. And so it's colored in red, so obviously an ominous color to begin with. But secondly, the colors that are colored in white are cut off in a lot of cases. So North America is cut off. Siberia, which would have been surprisingly, they weren't interested in Siberia. This is covered by the legend. So it really makes the red to white ratio seem much more insidious. It suggests that what Germany wants is world domination. And was it effective? Were these kind of maps effective? They were. They were. They certainly did play into ideas that the public already had about the enemy, about them being greedy, about them perverting the national right to self-determination in other countries and other nations. And did Germany do the same thing on the other side for their population? Absolutely. In fact, there is a German map. Actually, I believe it was a Spanish map that looks very similar to this map. And instead of showing land in red that Germany had expressed interest in, it showed the land that Great Britain had control of either through a colony or a dominion. And it showed all of that in red to show the greed of the British Empire. So propaganda works for both sides? It works for both sides, absolutely. Renee, we've seen maps and posters designed to propaganda for American citizens, but this map is something that was aimed at Germans. It was. Yes, this is a map prepared by the American Expeditionary Forces. And it's actually a propaganda leaflet that was dropped over enemy trenches. And in fact, that was a common practice in World War I. The British even invented an unmanned leaflet balloon, which they produced about 50,000 of through the course of the war. Simply to drop propaganda over German trenches. And this particular map is showing the front lines on September 12th and the front lines on September 13th of 1918. And the caption says essentially, this land that the Germans spent four years occupying, the Americans took in only 27 hours. And so its intention really was to disrupt morale. We're now looking at a poster with a very strong emotional appeal. Tell us about it. Right. This is one of the more well-known American propaganda posters of World War I. And for good reason, it is very compelling in its imagery. What it's referring to is what was called the Rape of Belgium. And that is a series of atrocities committed by German troops as they were invading the country. The most well-documented is the burning down of approximately 25,000 homes. What was more dogmatically publicized by the Allied press, however, were unconfirmed reports of very bizarre mutilations and sexual assaults committed against Belgian women and children. Hence the depiction of a little girl by her size. She's about 10 or 11 years old, being dragged off by a German soldier. And this German soldier appears in his Hun characterization. So in Allied press, German soldiers were depicted always wearing a spiked helmet, a piekelhub, which was a symbol of Prussian militarism. And this particular Hun image has a mustache and a profile that somewhat resembles Otto von Bismarck's. So there's very little doubt to the viewers what this is showing. What this image is showing. And these events, the Rape of Belgium, that would have been well known, it was publicized in the news, so people would immediately make the connection with this poster. Absolutely, they would immediately understand what this poster was showing. And in fact, this poster is not the only iteration of the image. This image also appeared in Ladies' Magazine with the caption, Somebody's Little Girl Suppose She Was Yours. This is a very specific Hun characterization. There's no doubt about what they're talking about here. Tell us about it. Right, this is a very good example of a Hun characterization. We have not only the spiked helmet, which was an example of militarism. We also have a bloody bayonet, which is often included on pictures of the Hun. And more importantly, we have bloody hands. Bloody hands that are dripping over the landscape. What's particularly striking about this from an American viewpoint is the ocean below the Hun. It appears as though he is looking over the Atlantic Ocean, towards America, and the caption, of course, says, beat back the Hun. So in a way, it's eliciting fear that we could be next. And another really striking part of this poster is how the bloody bayonet comes out of the frame. And it almost appears as if he is crawling out of the poster towards you. Oftentimes newspapers use maps to help people understand the stories and the situations that was going on in Europe. Tell us about this one. Right, this particular news map was included on the front page of the Oakland Tribune in June of 1915. So less than a year after the war had commenced. And it's really asking the question, what way are these Balkan states that are committed to a side yet, which way are they going to jump? That's how they put it. So which side are they going to be drawn into? Because there was very little doubt that they had no choice. They were going to join the war. It just all depended on what side. And what are some of the countries that have been depicted here and how did the article talk about that? Right, so here we have Greece, Bulgaria, and Romania. And those are the three countries that they're really questioning at this point. Turkey was already committed to the Central Powers. Serbia and Montenegro had been fighting Austria-Hungary since the very beginning of the war. And Albania at this point was very much in anarchy. So these three fairly large countries with significant fighting power were in a way up for grabs. Were they going to fall to the Central Powers? Were they going to be lured into helping the Allies? And as it turns out, Romania and Greece joined the Allied sign. Bulgaria actually joined the Central Powers. And Serbia and Montenegro almost surprisingly were still very much in the war at this point. Serbia would fall by the end of 1915. And Montenegro would fall soon after to Austria-Hungary. So the maps really help people understand the geography of where these countries are and what impact it might have depending on which way they went? Absolutely. This map helped the readers understand who the alliances were, who was with who and who was against who. Tell us about it. Right, so the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente were two alliances in Europe before the Great War started. So the Triple Alliance was comprised of Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Italy. And the Triple Entente was comprised of Russia, France, and Great Britain. And the agreement between these alliances was that if they were attacked, the others would come to their aid. So it's showing on the map here the Triple Entente is colored pink. The Triple Alliance is colored green with the exception of Italy, which was still neutral at this point in the war. And it is given a green outline to show its membership in the Triple Alliance, but colored yellow to show that it is actually still neutral. And there was a lot more information here as well, the troop strength and that sort of thing. Absolutely. So they have here on the side graphs showing the strength of each country's armies. And you can see at the very beginning the infantrymen, the armies are shown by how big the picture is. And the Daily Mail, which put this out, was at the very beginning of the war a huge proponent for conscription in Great Britain. They believed that Great Britain's army was not large enough to achieve its goals. And so it makes sense that they would put this graphic first because Great Britain's army looks very pitiful next to the other great powers. We've seen many maps that were for public consumption, but this map was definitely not. Tell us about it. So this was a barrage plan for the American 4th Division. And it's showing with the pink lines the time at which the shells from the heavy artillery would hit that area. And so that allowed the infantrymen to know to stay behind those pink lines at those times. So they would get blown up by their own artillery. Precisely. And what else is on the map that's interesting? The area this is showing includes Mont-Fachon, which was a village, very heavily fortified area held by the Germans. In fact, they called it Little Gibraltar. And the mission to take Mont-Fachon was given to the 79th Division of the American Exhibitionary Forces, which is an interesting decision because they had never seen combat. They were made up of draftees who had been in the war for only four months. They had relatively little training compared to other divisions. And they were given the worst terrain. So it was pockmarked to the point where you couldn't walk more than a few steps without falling into a three or four foot hole from previous shells. And it did take them much longer than it was scheduled to capture Mont-Fachon and Nantigua, which was their final target. This is another battle plan map, but it shows where the German defenses are. Tell us about that. Right. So this is a trench map. And these little blue lines are actually showing the trench systems of the German army around the area of Mont-Brahain. And two significant lines, two very thick lines, are the Hindenburg Line and the Böhler-Vohr Line. Those were two very important German defensive lines and the Böhler-Vohr Line in particular. Once that was taken by the Allies, the Germans were forced into unfortified territory, which was obviously a huge victory for the Allies. And this shows a warning for Allied troops as well regarding Musterge. We believe so. We believe so. This map was owned by a gas officer, and we're fairly certain it was owned by a gas officer for an Australian division, judging by the printed division lines and the additional annotated division lines. And these yellow circles around defensive structures, the Hindenburg Line especially, probably indicate areas where the Germans had released mustard gas as an obstacle to the incoming forces. And mustard gas was particularly insidious because it could stay in the soil for weeks. And they showed the German trenches, but it didn't show the Allied trenches. No, you would never want to show your own trenches on a trench map in case it fell into the wrong hands. Renee, this exhibit has quite a diverse collection of maps and things that people might not think of as maps. What do you hope people will come away with? I hope people will come away with an understanding of how important maps were to the Great War, both on the home front and also on the battle front. And when does the exhibit run until? The exhibit runs until October 28th. And if people want more information about it? They should go to our website, which is www.oshermaps.org.