Missourians' Role in WWI Revealed in New Website
September 2, 2015 — People throughout Missouri and around the world can explore the once-hidden stories, faces and artifacts of Missourians who played roles in World War. They’re all available on a new website, Over There: Missouri & the Great War, at missourioverthere.org.
More than 14,000 pages of letters, diaries, photographs, military records, and other original materials have been placed online for free public access.
Missourioverthere.org also features hundreds of artifacts from the war and civilian support organizations, and includes a 360-degree panning feature for artifacts.
Individuals can see scans of documents and transcripts, and do keyword searches. There are also historical articles by leading WWI scholars, and photos from the battlefront and the home front.
The statewide, collaborative effort was possible through Library Services and Technology Act Digital Imaging grants from the Missouri State Library and led by project director Brian Grubbs, manager of the Local History and Genealogy Department of the Springfield-Greene County Libraries.
The Library, the Missouri History Museum, St. Louis, and the Museum of Osteopathic MedicineSM, Kirksville, partnered to find and digitize all of the documents, artifacts and photographs housed in museums, archives, libraries and private family collections.
The First World War reshaped much of the modern world, and Missourians actively contributed to various aspects of the war effort. Missouri industries fulfilled military contracts to supply mules, munitions and other goods to Allied armies.
According to the Missouri State Archives, more than 156,000 Missourians served in the war. Prominent Missourians who fought in the war include Gens. John J. Pershing and Enoch Crowder, the future President Harry S Truman, and Walt Disney. The last surviving U.S. veteran from World War I, Frank Buckles, was a Missouri native.
For more information about the new website, call 616-0534.