French regiment marching in loose order
Caption on back of image: “Heroes of the Marne Earn Well Deserved Rest. Never was the indomitable spirit of the French soldiers shown to better advantage than when the first great drive was made on Paris. Spurred on by cheerful talk of their officers, these men created history by their defense of their mother land. The picture shows a regiment of those fighters returning to billet after a long stretch in the trenches.”
Step into La Belle Époque (“The Beautiful Era”) on the eve of war, when Parisians threw patriotic celebrations and cheered on their soldiers departing for the front lines – when war was still a distant thing.
Avec des Assassins Poster
Translation: With the Killers / With the Incendiaries / With the Thieves / We Don't Debate / We Judge Them / You Remember!
Aerial raids necessitated blackout regulations, snuffing out the city’s famed lights. The people endured food and fuel shortages that led to rationing and hardship – and uprisings. As soldiers from French-colonized countries and other Allied troops converged from all over the world, Parisian communities of different classes, races, genders and religions see-sawed between cooperation and conflict.
Algerian rifleman tunic
For an officer of the 1st Regiment de Tirailleurs Algeriens.
What did the fresh-faced doughboys and war-weary Parisians make of each other? What was this new jazz music pouring out of nightclubs despite the city still being under siege? Follow along with the Americans in Paris, many of whom were experiencing “gay Paree” for the first time.
African American military band performing at the American Red Cross Military Hospital No. 1.
Everyone all but went mad on Armistice Day in Paris, November 11th, 1918.
—and contemplate the far-reaching consequences of the peace treaties negotiated and signed in locations across the city, consequences which still shape the world today.
The Hall of Mirrors at Versailles during the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.
This exhibition is supported in part by the City of Kansas City, Missouri Neighborhood Tourist Development Fund.
