William Mead Ferris III Photographs
The photographs taken by William Mead Ferris III, a former Knox student, show World War I-era planes, ships, ambulances, storage facilities, tanks, military vehicles, and guns. While serving in the army overseas, Ferris sent these photographs home to his sister, who preserved them. Tragically, Ferris sustained serious injuries as a result of gas warfare and then contracted pneumonia. He was sent to a French hospital, where he lingered for three days and then passed away. The nurse who cared for Ferris during his last days described him as "so sweet and brave and uncomplaining."
More information about Ferris is presented on this page of the exhibit.
William Mead Ferris III relaxes on a pier in Milwaukee
William Mead Ferris III's World War I experience started with his training at Fort Sheridan in Illinois. These photographs depict moments he recorded during his time there.
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Officers' baggage detail
Dismantling weaponry
Lieutenant Benson
Signal drill
The Parade
The Tower
Captain Marley
Captain Marley
Gun spark
Equestrian training
Capts. Marley and Deacon
Camping
Zeppelin interior
The First World War was notable for the many technological advances that occurred during the war. World War I is often referred to as "the first modern war," and that was indeed the case, as new machinery changed warfare forever. Ferris' photographs visually document the rapidly evolving technologies available to armies during the war.
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Caudron G4
German aircraft
Aviator and plane
German plane over clouds
Biplane and pilot
Men by plane
Aviator and plane
War ship
Ship deck
War ship
American ambulances
American Red Cross
Military ambulances
Storage shed
Four tanks
Tanks
Row of military vehicles
Military car
Armored car
Vehicles on road
Soldiers and guns
Guns outside building
Soldiers with gun
Soldiers in World War I faced new horrors, including gas warfare and trench warfare.
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Men in gas masks
Soldier in gas mask
Soldier on dirt path
Soldiers in trench
Soldiers in trench
Men seated in trench
Soldiers in trench
Soldiers in landscape
Soldiers in trench
Signpost in trench
Trench with barbed wire
Trenches
Barbed wire
Barbed wire fence
Ferris' photographs of the damaged European countryside provide atmosphere and context for what soldiers endured during World War I. Such desolation inspired T.S. Eliot's magnum opus "The Wasteland," in which Eliot writes,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief
And the dry stone no sound of water.
These words express the ruin much of Europe fell into during the First World War.
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Burial ground
Soldier in a bombed town
Bomb-damaged building
Collapsed bridge
Bombed town
Bridge
Bleak landscape
Empty landscape
Trees and road
War-torn landscape
Bunker entrance
Soldier in Bannoncourt
Ferris documented some of the men he encounted during his time in the war, but he left no notes about the identities of the men he photographed.
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Three soldiers
Soldier on a bridge
Suited for winter
Solitary soldier
At base
Officer aboard ship
Soldier
In winter
A march
Aviator
Two soldiers
German prisoners
Men on a train
Soldiers