I know very little about World War I and especially how it affected Kansas. I decided to do some research about it. I was able to find some information at Spencer. I think one of the big reasons why this war was so important was because of how much it affected everybody, not just people overseas. Here I have an excerpt from Graduate Magazine, June 1918:

“Of the University of Kansas men in the army and navy twenty-seven are members of the faculty and are absent from the University on leave of absence for the duration of the war. Additional faculty members are giving their time exclusively to other war work, such as the service of Doctor James Naismith and P.A.F. Appleboom in Y.M.C.A. work in France, Dean Olin Templin and Miss Elizabeth Sprague in the food administration office at Washington and other instructors in government laboratories and on munition plant construction work, and in other services….As an example of how thoroughly war needs raided the University, the department of psychology lost its entire faculty, with the exception of assistant instructors. Its three professors were taken by the army to make psychological tests in examining recruits for aviation and other special work. Seven members of the engineering faculty were taken and physical education department lost five of its faculty. Only this summer five more of the faculty of the department of French have been taken. Of forty-two graduates in the engineering classes of 1918, not one could attend commencement exercises to receive his diploma.”

And recently I’ve gotten in the bad habit of spoiling you guys by providing pictures. So, here I go again.

The Student Army Training Corps is pretty self-explanatory. It was an organization that helped prepare students or other local area men or draftees to prepare for war. Here we have the barracks.

The SATC headquarters force.

The SATC battalion on parade in 1918.

Here we have some young students training with wooden rifles. Fred Ellsworth, who Ellsworth hall is named after, is second from the right.

As we know, women served a great deal in the war as well: Either helping out on the homefront or serving overseas as nurses. I’m not quite sure what these women are doing. Let me know if you can figure it out. I assume it has something to do with nursing.

*click on any picture to see a larger version

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