September 20, 2015

Mellon-funded First World War Centenary Exhibition

“The Great War 100 Years Later” is a centenary commemoration of the First World War funded by a Mellon grant for faculty/student collaborative research.

“The Great War 100 Years Later” is a centenary commemoration of the First World War focusing on the impact of the war at Lewis & Clark College (formerly Albany College) and the personal experiences of Morgan S. Odell, the first President of Lewis & Clark (1942-1960) and a volunteer ambulance driver on the Italian Front during the war.  The exhibition draws from a wide range of documents and artifacts highlighting various aspects of the war and its legacies.

Featured items include the letters and personal effects of Sgt. Morgan S. Odell, US Army Ambulance Section, 1917-1919; bulletins from Albany College, 1916-1919, with details of students and alumni serving in the war; a first edition of Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms; Theodore Roosevelt’s The Great Adventure signed by President Roosevelt and his second wife Edith; the report and minutes of evidence from the parliamentary investigation into the 1916 Easter Rising signed by Gavan Duffy, the lawyer who defended the Irish rebel Roger Casement at his treason trial; French propaganda posters from the home front; and military medals and insignia from over a dozen countries.

This project is funded by a Mellon grant for faculty/student collaborative research.  The research, writing, and curating was done by David Campion, Pamplin Associate Professor of History, Sten Eccles-Irwin (History, ’16), Emma Hoch-Schneider (History and Biology, ’16), and Nicolas Read (International Affairs and German Studies, ’18) with assistance from Zachariah Selley and the Watzek Library Special Collections and Archives.

The exhibition will be on display from August 2015 through July 2016 in the Aubrey R. Watzek Library Atrium.