Like it did for tanks and gas masks, the First World War spurred scientists and engineers to make advancements in the field of “lighter-than-air” technology – balloons.

Second Lieutenant Harry Hinman Sisson, Company E, 309th Engineers, 84th Division, carried a violin with him in France throughout his service in the American Expeditionary Forces.

Arthur Standing was a conscientious objector and did not fight during World War I. Instead, he participated in alternate service with the American Friends Service Committee.

American soldiers provided aid to children left behind by the war. Through the army newspaper Stars and Stripes and the American Red Cross, they would symbolically adopt French orphans.