U.S. Marine Corps

U.S. Marine Corps World War I poster. Image courtesty of University of Minnesota Libraries

The United States Marine Corps was established on this day in 1775 during the Revolutionary War. Captain Samuel Nichols established the Continental Marines, the root of the modern Marine Corps, to serve as the muscle of the Continental Navy. It did not become the United States Marine Corps until 1798 when Congress created in preparation for conflict with post-revolutionary France.

Boys Take Oath Into the Marine Corps. Image courtesy of Unitah County Library.

Since their charged debut the Marine Corps have served in every American foreign armed conflict. Opening History has posters and photos relevant to the Marine Corps in World Wars I and II, along with other military history resources. The two images are from University of Minnesota Libraries and the Unitah County Library.

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US and World War I

On April 6, 1917, the United States declared war on Germany, thus entering the World War I. The document below, courtesy of the Library of Congress, American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera digital collection, shows flags of the nations at war with Germany or her allies as of June 22, 1917, with the United States flag in the middle.

The flags of the nations at war with Germany or her allies. Corrected to June 22, 1917

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Balloon

On January 9, 1793, the first balloon was flied in the United States. Over 70 years later, in 1865, balloons were first brought into the U.S. Army by the Signal Corps. This photograph, courtesy of Lake County Discovery Museum’s collection shows a military observation balloon which belongs to the Ohio National Guard and is used by the Field Artillery at El Paso, Texas, in 1917.

Military Observation Baloon (1917)

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World No Tobacco Day

May 31st is the World No Tobacco Day.

The Opening History aggregation includes two digital collections focusing on the subject of fighting back against the epidemic of tobacco smoking —Tobacco Free Project, San Francisco Dept. of Public Health Records collection and Asian/Pacific Islanders Tobacco Education Network Records collection.

A number of other collections in Opening History aggregation contain hundreds of items (photographs, documents, posters, letters, etc.) about the various aspects of tobacco manufacturing and tobacco use in the United States.

The World War I poster (courtesy of Summons to Comradeship digital collection) and the 1908 photograph (courtesy of Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930 digital collection) below exemplify two different attitudes to tobacco in early-20th-century United States:

Industrial Problems, Conditions: United States. Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh Survey: Tobacco drying in the work room poisons the air (1908)

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Salvation Army founded in U.S. March 10, 1880

Illustration from 'The War Romance of the Salvation Army', 1919; Copyright President and Fellows of Harvard College

An illustration (p.4) from the full text of “The War Romance of the Salvation Army”, a book by Evangeline Booth and Grace Livingston Hill, 1919.
Courtesy of Harvard University, Women Working, 1800-1930 collection.
More information from Opening History aggregation.

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