THE FIRST WORLD WAR: A DOCUMENTARY RECORD
Series One: European War, 1914-1919, the War Reserve Collection from Cambridge University Library

Part 1: The Card Catalogue Index and Manuscript Listings

"Attractive and logical. An excellent microfilm collection of unparalleled scope for the study of the First World War."
Professor Jay Winter, Consultant Editor, Department of History, Yale University

Beginning our major microfilm series on the First World War, we are making available to a wider audience, for the first time, the riches of the Cambridge War Reserve Collection. Part 1 provides the Card Catalogue and manuscript Listings which highlight the great range and scope of the material covered. We are very pleased that Professor J M Winter, Department of History, Yale University is our Consultant Editor for this project.

The Great War, with its tale of splendour and misery, stirred Francis Jenkinson profoundly. As Cambridge University Librarian, Jenkinson decided at the beginning of 1915 to embark upon a comprehensive and systematic collection of all materials pertaining to the European conflict. He set to work at once, writing in all directions, literally from China to Peru, to public offices at home and abroad, to men on every front, to English exiles and to sympathetic neutrals.

The result was the Cambridge War Reserve Collection which documents the military campaigns, the social and political scene, the role of women, the impact of science and technology, reconstruction, Versailles and the League of Nations, and the unsatisfactory and inconclusive nature of the peace.

Much poignant and detailed information is revealed through letters and poems, press cuttings from foreign newspapers, propaganda, eye witness accounts, personal reminiscences and diaries, pamphlets and leaflets, posters, postcards and photographs.

A flavour of some of the material is given by Jenkinson’s own letters:

"Dear Sir
I see in the Morning Post reference to the Fifth Gloucester Gazette, and your name is mentioned in connexion with the poems of Lieut. F W Harvey. I am making great efforts to get together a War Collection for preservation in this library, as likely to be interesting hereafter and also useful. I have a certain number of trench magazines, etc, but I have not this. Can you help me get a set? Or pass this on to some one who can and will? So many of these publications will disappear after the War that copies ought to be housed in a few safe places.
Believe me,
Yours faithfully
FRANCIS JENKINSON
Librarian"

In May 1915 he wrote:

"An attempt is being made to form an historical collection of pamphlets, newspapers, proclamations, fly sheets, etc…, illustrative of the War."

In 1916 he wrote:

"A special effort has been made to collect, while it is still possible, such ephemeral literature arising out of the War as might hereafter be interesting and useful to students. German propaganda literature has been accumulated chiefly from Italy, Spain, the United States, and some of the South American Republics. Much of this is printed in Germany; but some is produced by partisans at Genoa, Barcelona, Castellon, New York, Chicago, Shanghai… All serial publications, newspapers, pamphlets, posters, leaflets connected with the war have been welcomed, and much help has been given by kind friends, both here and abroad."

C E Sayle’s editorial piece on the War Collection in ULC (a short periodical record of library achievements published between 1920 and 1923) highlights:

"Among the novelties which form part of the Collection may be mentioned 2 balloons received from Viscount Esher, used for the distribution of propaganda leaflets over the enemy lines; a large number of War Posters from T Knox-Shaw MA, Lt J G A North and others, some of which were obtained from hoardings in the occupied territory; postcards and letters from prisoners of war; regimental Christmas Cards; a specimen of a cheap novel in Low German, in which is inserted a sheet of printed matter containing news of officers and men in prisoner’s camps in this and other countries; Bolshevik paper money; local credit notes issued in France and Belgium and many other items".

According to C E Sayle the Collection contains over 10,000 items. He adds that:

"These contributions are due entirely to the enthusiasm and energy of the Librarian, who has in most cases made a personal appeal to the donors. We are greatly indebted to all those who have interested themselves in our work, and helped to preserve the memorials of the Great War".

"…there can be no doubt that he rendered a great public service … and that some day the historian … will turn with avidity to the ill-printed scraps, often stained with the Flanders mud, to the pages of 'The Grim Old Lion’s Dare Devil Gazette' or 'The Two-Asuere', and bless the man who managed to save them from the dust heap."

Above all C E Sayle says that Jenkinson’s decision to embark on such a collection was an act of great "...mental alertness, vision and initiatory genius."

The microfilm project tries to capture all aspects of the great conflict. In particular, it highlights the role of industry, the part played by women, the views and experiences of the soldiers themselves, the significance of propaganda, the different phases of the war, the unsatisfactory nature of the peace settlement and the need for post-war reconstruction.

Part 1 enables scholars to see the collection as a whole by covering the two principal means of access. The first is the library card catalogue, the second is the handwritten subject catalogue. Students browsing through both catalogues will find that these will suggest many potential topics for essays and theses, and will simultaneously point at sources to support their investigations.

The First World War dominates the history of the first half of the twentieth century. The shock waves it set off were felt long after the Armistice of November 1918. Thus no library concentrating on twentieth century studies should be without the Cambridge War Reserve Collection. This microfilm edition is a major contribution to a fuller understanding of the conflict and it will pave the way for much new research and reappraisal.