A New Resource for WWI Photos

Old photos tell stories that cannot be shared in any other way. Genealogists often find that looking at photographs from the time that their ancestor was alive sheds light on what his or her life was like. Those of you who are looking for photos from WWI have a new resource to check out. It isn’t on a genealogy website, either!

The Atlantic has gathered a vast collection of photos from World War I. It is being presented as a ten part series by Alan Taylor. Each part is released individually. At the time I am writing this blog, there are three parts that have not yet been presented. They are marked as “coming soon”.

This collection of photos from WWI is so much more than a random, haphazard, grouping that you might find on Flickr (or possibly Pinterest). Every photo that is part of the series of WWI photos at The Atlantic is posted with a detailed description.

Some photos contain the names of the prominent people who were in the photo. Photos of soldiers have descriptions that make it clear which country the soldiers were from. There are photos of airplanes, boats, bicycles, weapons, and more.

It should be noted that some of the photographs in the collection show the bodies of people who have died. Those types of images can be disturbing to many people, so I am giving this warning ahead of time. It is understandable why those types of photos would be included in a collection of images from World War I.

The first part of the ten part series is called “An Introduction”. It gives brief historical details about how and why World War I got started. It is a good place to start for genealogists who need to brush up on their history, or for those who have not learned much about World War I.

The other sections are titled: “The Western Front, Part I”, “World War I Technology”, “Animals at War”, “Arial Warfare”, “Soldiers and Civilians”, and “War at Sea”. All of those sections are open and can be viewed right now. Three more sections have yet to be released. They are titled “The Global War”, “The Western Front, Part II”, and “World War I Today”.

Image by State Library of South Australia on Flickr.

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