THE FIRST WORLD WAR: A DOCUMENTARY RECORD

Series One: European War 1914-1919, the War Reserve Collection (WRA-WRE) from Cambridge University Library

Part 1: The Card Catalogue and Manuscript Listings

Publisher's Note

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 Dr J M Winter, University Lecturer in History and Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge has agreed to act as 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, Bogatá, Medellin, Barranquilla, San José, Santiago, Curaçoa…. 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, to highlight 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, the project brings together a fascinating diversity of source material.

The material will be reproduced in stages:

Part 1 makes available the full card catalogue Index and Manuscript Listings. These are essential to all researchers using the Collection.

Part 2 portrays the conflict through a host of personal reminiscences. The varied range of this material – poignant, bitter, hopeful, anxious, desperate or elated, often emotional and always vivid – is a great tribute to Jenkinson’s collecting abilities. Such documents tell the researcher so much.

There are contributions from women and children. They come from all levels of society.

Parts 3 and 4 focus on Allied and German Propaganda. Germany spent over 100 million dollars on direct propaganda in newspapers and other publications. The British centre for propaganda at Wellington House, London was headed by Sir Gilbert Parker. Much of the effort was aimed at the United States before 1917. The great battles of Verdun, the Somme and Passchendaele gave rise to tremendous outpourings on each side trying to justify the stalemate, slaughter and renewed offensives. In this project all types of material are portrayed: appeals to keep up morale; the undermining of enemy civilian and front-line morale and finally the wooing of neutrals.

Part 5 brings together a vast array of material which demonstrates the importance of the Auxiliary Services – particularly the Red Cross, the Royal Medical Corps, the Military Surgeons and the new Ambulance Corps – and greatly enrich our understanding of a much under-studied dimension of the subject.

Part 6 concentrates on the military campaigns of 1914 – The Battles of Mons (Aug 23); Tannenberg (Aug 26-29); The First Battle of the Marne (Sep 5-10); Masurian Lakes (Sep 6-15); Lemberg (Sep 8-12); The First Battle of Ypres (Oct 12-Nov 17); and the Battle of Coronel (Nov 1).

Future parts will cover military operations 1915-1918, naval and aerial operations, Russia, the Bolsheviks and the Eastern Front, Economics, Socialism, Reconstruction 1917-1919, Peace, the Versailles Settlement and the creation of the League of Nations 1918-1919, Pictures, Posters and Illustrations, Memorial Volumes and Regimental Records 1914-1918.

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. Two new parts will be made available each year.

The 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.

The brief guide explaining the Card Catalogue and the Manuscript Listings and providing a general introduction to the project accompanies Part 1 of the microfilm edition.

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