August 2014 marked the centenary of World War One, a war whose legacy remains profound in the 21st century. To commemorate its outbreak and its legacy, Dr. Irene Guenther, History Professor in the Honors College, University of Houston, and Dr. Marion Deshmukh, Professor of History and Art History at George Mason University, are curating a fascinating exhibition, “Postcards from the Trenches: German and Americans Visualize the Great War”. The exhibit will center on ordinary soldiers, who often conveyed their experiences through “field postcards,” blank postcards distributed to soldiers at the war front on which they corresponded with their loved ones at home. While some soldiers wrote about their ordeal, others painted or drew their experiences. Postcards were ubiquitous, the “social currency” of World War I.

The exhibition will commemorate the centennial of World War One and its soldiers through words and images, sometimes created by hand, sometimes pressed in limited numbers, and often times printed by the thousands – mass-produced by governments, printers, music companies, and shops of all kinds; handmade, photographed, or purchased by loved ones on the home front; and hand-painted, sketched, etched into metal, carved into woodblocks, or superimposed on pre-printed cards by soldiers, who described the conflict as “godless,” hopeless,” and “mechanized terror.”

Importantly, this exhibit is one of very few planned to commemorate the First World War in the United States. Yet the conflict had a profound and lasting effect on this country, as illustrated by the recent groundswell of support to build a World War I memorial on the National Mall in the nation’s capital. This exhibition features loans from the National World War I Museum in Kansas City, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and works from several private lenders across the country.

OPENING RECEPTION:
Ocotber 23, 2014
Opening remarks by Dean Bill Monroe, The Honors College, University of Houston, Clemens Kroll, Deputy Consul General, German Consulate General Houston, and Dr. Irene Guenther, co-curator of the exhibition, with music performed by The Houston Saengerbund.

SCHOLAR LECTURE SERIES:

October 30, 2014:
Talk by Steven Fenberg, “Give Until It Hurts: Jesse Jones, Houston and World War I,” 7 p.m.

November 6, 2014
Talk by Jay Winter, “the First World War: A Transnational Approach,” 7 p.m.

November 20, 2014
Talk by Michael Lasser, “‘Smile the While You Kiss Me Sad Adieu,'” The Love Songs of WWI,” 7 p.m.

Seating is limited to 65, RSVP’s required (713) 522-4652, ext. 201

For more information about the exhibition and curators please visit the website at www.postcardsfromthetrenches.com