By Richard E. Schade

For the Monitor

The current multi-organization collaboration “Over There, Over Here” commemorates the 100th anniversary of the entry of the United States into World War I. The title is well chosen, as it picks up on the patriotic call to arms enunciated in the popular ditty of the day, “Over There” –

“Johnnie get your gun,

Get your gun, get your gun:

Johnnie show the Hun

Who’s a son of a gun …”

“Over Here” refers to the New Hampshire home front – Bradford, Hopkinton, New London, Londonderry, Penacook, Warner and Webster – where 13 cultural institutions have mounted various exhibits and planned programs during the summer months and on into November (for more information about the exhibits and programs, go to www.OverThereOverHere.com).

The “Hun” was the enemy of the United States as of President Wilson’s proclamation of war against the German Empire in April 1917 – an event documented by an article from a local newspaper currently displayed in the well-conceived Hopkinton Historical Society exhibit. The overall focus is on the decidedly “here” locale. The names of those who served, of which two men died, are listed on a granite memorial on the Hopkinton Green, some 50 men and Laura Sanborn, an Army Nurse. The visitor to the display can leaf through well-researched files on each of these patriotic citizen-soldiers, can view photos of the day as they mustered in Contoocook, and as they returned as surviving heroes driving through town in (for us, vintage) automobiles. An ensemble of late Victorian living-room furniture invites the visitor to take a seat in a local home. Scattered on side tables are letters from the European front, from the trenches of France; in short, over there becomes right here, right now.

As I moved through the exhibit, I noted a photograph of Colonel Clarence Rexford (1875-1969), a N.H. hero who was instrumental in establishing Fort Devens in Massachusetts as a training facility for the Yankee Division, not to mention his service in France. Further, I came across a photo portraying a young John Winant (1889-1947), a veteran who was to serve as governor of New Hampshire and, later, as U.S. ambassador to Great Britain during World War II. Such personages jump out at the viewer, but the likes of Dr. Wallace Tarbell (1871-1945), who devotedly served Hopkinton’s citizens – “No doubt 1918 must have seemed like a disaster – deaths of previously healthy young people stricken by the mysterious [so-called Spanish] flu epidemic and loss of life and limb from warfare.” And Frank Reed (1863-1943), the local undertaker, set up shop for embalming “in the little building that’s connected to the Methodist Church in Contoocook.” In short, the reality of WWI on the home front is evoked by these photos and artifacts – a Tarbell “Medicine bottle found in a barn on Clement Hill Road” – and particularly by a display on the Army Nurse listed on the Hopkinton Green Memorial, Laura Sanborn (1881-1969). A photo of her and a nurse’s uniform from the era gives us a sense of the person’s presence; service medals define contributions to the patriotic cause; and a wooden wheelchair evokes loss-of-limb sacrifice.

My tour of the exhibit continued – toy soldiers arrayed in all manner of poses replete with ghoulish gas masks, two WWI uniforms, an American rifle as well as a German one, a German cooking pot and a photo of its owner from the trenches (Iron Cross and all!), a documentation of standard military equipment, and various bayonets. Taken together, they are regalia from over there used by those who fought in the Great War, as it was known in those times.

The most visually arresting images of the era are, hands-down, the Liberty Bond posters created in support of the nationwide campaign to raise funds for the war. Arrayed around the exhibit space, they jump out at the viewer. In the same way that Uncle Sam “want[s] you for U. S. Army !” – Americans on the home front were implored to give.

The images from the Hopkinton Historical Society holdings are patriotic, and some are powerfully xenophobic. A brutal spike-helmeted male monster, the enemy, threatens a helpless woman and child on the poster “Hun or Home?” Such fear-mongering founded on actual and presumed war-is-war brutality, such implementation of anti-German hysteria during the war years, was arguably effective for the cause, bringing the immediate realities of “over there” to the Here and Now, to the United States and Hopkinton, New Hampshire of 1917.

“Johnnie show the Hun

Who’s a son of a gun:

Hoist the flag and let her fly,

Yankee Doodle, do or die …”

Indeed, an image on sheet music displayed in the Hopkinton exhibit, says it all. It pictures U.S. troops marching down Berlin’s grandest avenue leading to the Brandenburg Gate and it is titled, “When Yankee Doodle Marches through Berlin: THERE’LL BE A HOT TIME IN THE U.S.A.”

“Yankee Doodle, do or die …” — put another way: Live Free or Die.

Richard Schade, is a professor of German Studies, University of Cincinnati, and a summer resident of Hopkinton.

 

—————————-

Over There, Over Here: WWI and Life in New Hampshire Communities

“Over There, Over Here” is a multi-group collaboration commemorating the 100th anniversary of the United States’ entry into World War I featuring exhibits, programs, lectures, and book readings. The goal is to put the war in social context exploring the themes of the lives of service men and women, Native American soldiers, the development of camouflage and chemical warfare, communication tactics on the battlefield, the war relief effort, changes on the home front, temperance, women’s suffrage, the Influenza epidemic, and the profound changes in music, art, and literature. Made possible with grants from: New Hampshire Humanities and World War I and America.

“Over There, Over Here: WWI and Life in New Hampshire Communities,” will be on display through Sept. 2 and is free and open to the public.  The Society is open on Thursday and Friday from 9-4 and Saturday from 9-1.  For more information, contact the Society at 746-3825 or www.HopkintonHistory.org.

 

Participating organizations include: Aviation Museum of New Hampshire, Bradford Historical Society, Hopkinton Historical Society, Hopkinton Town Library, Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum, New Hampshire Telephone Museum, New London Historical Society, Penacook Historical Society, Pillsbury Free Library, The Little Nature Museum, Warner Historical Society, Webster Historical Society, and Webster Free Public Library.

Upcoming programs include:

7/13 Chemical Warfare & WWI

7/26 Concert of WWI music, Hopkinton Town Band

8/18 Movie & Pizza Night “Suffragettes” 

8/25 From Where I Write: War Time Letters

For more information about these and other programs, go to www.OverThereOverHere.com.