World War I Art at the St. Louis Art Museum: Max Beckmann Prints

Max Beckmann, Self portrait, 1915

Recently, project staff visited the Saint Louis Art Museum’s Print Study Room to view their collection of WWI prints. The highlight of the visit was Max Beckmann’s WWI prints. He was a medical corpsman in the German Army during WWI. Later in life, he taught at Washington University, in St. Louis, Missouri.  

Beckmann is considered one of the most important German painters of the 20th century.  During and after WWI, he completed over three hundred seventy prints. These prints (lithographs and drypoints) were based on his first hand experiences serving on the Russian front and at a hospital in Flanders.

Walter G. Shaw, Musician, Second Class, 18th Infantry Band

Project staff recently scanned and transcribed a collection of letters written by Walter G. Shaw. Shaw enlisted in the U.S. Army in April 1917 and was assigned to Company K, 18th Infantry Band. After completing training in Arizona, Shaw was sent to France as part of General John J. Pershing’s 1st Division. Shaw frequently wrote home about his experiences, both stateside and abroad. His letters offer an interesting insight into the life of a soldier through training and deployment in France.

Tracing Your Family's WWI Military History

How do I access my WWI relative's military records?

• Missouri Digital Heritage Soldier's Records. The Missouri State Archives holds nearly 1½ million pages that document the service of Missourians in domestic and foreign wars between 1812 and World War I. The database include the names of men and women who served in the regular United States Army, the National Guard, the United States Marine Corps, or the United States Navy.

• Ancestry.com's U.S. Military Collection. This collection contains WWI draft registration cards. These cards can be an extremely useful resource for genealogists because they cover a significant portion of the U.S. male population in the early twentieth-century. Between 1917 and 1918, approximately 24 million men living in the United States completed a World War I draft registration card. Spanning from 1914 to roughly 1930, this collection includes more than 40 million names from all existing U.S. states (requires subscription.)

•  National Archives Military Personnel Records.The National Personnel Records Center, Military Personnel Records (NPRC-MPR) in St. Louis, Missouri is the repository of millions of military personnel, health, and medical records of discharged and deceased veterans of all services during the 20th century.  These records are not available online. Information from the records is made available upon written request, directions and a form to do so can be found here. Many of the records were destroyed in a 1973 fire. See our May 10, 2013 blog post for more details about the fire.

• The Missouri State Archives and Missouri History Museum WWI Biography & Service Record Collection. In 1919, the Adjutant General's Office collected biographical information of Missouri soldiers who fought in World War I. These records contain rich genealogical information such as military rank, branch of service, battles fought, prior military service, date and place of birth, occupation, nationality, spouse and parent's names, education, religious affiliations, fraternal organizations, ancestors who participated in earlier wars, and names of children and siblings. The collection is organized by county and split between the organizations. These records are not available online. Visit the Missouri State Archives or the Missouri History Museum for more information.

• The Missouri State Archives Missouri Home Guard and Missouri National Guard Service Muster Rolls. The Muster rolls contain information such as rank, date and place of enlistment, and number of years in service, as well as information about each company - name of the captain, company, regiment, and name of the colonel. These records are not available online. Visit the Missouri State Archives for more information.
  

How do I learn what my relative's WWI experience was like?

After you have determined your relative's unit by looking at their military records, you can find out more about your relative's experiences by researching his unit's history. Here are some links that will help you begin your research, as well as a few Missouri-based unit histories that are available online:

• Gomez-Granger, Julissa; Leland, Anne. Military Service Records and Unit Histories: A Guide to Locating Sources. Congressional Research Service, 2012.
• Williams, Scott K. Missourians In the First World War
• Missouri Digital Heritage. 35th and 89th Division World War I Unit Histories
• U.S. Army Medical Department. Brief Histories of Combat Divisions

Did my relative receive a Medal of Honor during WWI?

• The U.S. Army Center of Military History list of Medal of Honor Recipients, World War I. 

How do I find out more about my relative who died during WWI?

• Haulsee, Howe, and Doyle. Soldiers of the Great War. Washington, DC, Soldiers Record Publishing Association, 1920. This 3-volume work provides as complete a record as possible of the American soldiers who lost their lives in World War I. Each volume contains photographs and lists of names for particular states.

• US Bureau of Naval Personnel. Officers and enlisted men of the United States Navy who lost their lives during the World War, from April 6, 1917, to November 11, 1918. Washington: Govt. Printing Office, 1920. Lists the name, cause and date of death, next of kin, and enlistment location of the Naval officers and enlisted men who died during WWI.

• Newspapers and obituaries are an excellent source of information. The State Historical Society of Missouri has a WWI newspaper clipping collection, composed primarily of Missouri obituaries. The St. Louis Public Library has an online guide to the casualty lists that appeared the the St. Louis Post Dispatch during WWI. Also be sure to search for your relative's surname on Chronicling America, an online database containing digitized historic newspapers from across the nation.

• Many institutions and public libraries have county and city honor rolls, with photographs of servicemen and women who were killed or wounded in action. Click here to view a directory of genealogical organizations in your area that may have honor rolls.

How do I find my WWI relative's grave site? 

• American Battle Monuments Commission's Casualty List. The American Battle Monuments Commission has records of WWI casualties that are buried in American cemeteries overseas or listed on the Walls of the Missing—a total of 33,717 records.

• Department of Veterans Affairs Nationwide Gravesite Locator. The Nationwide Gravesite Locator includes burial records from many sources. These sources provide varied data; some searches may contain less information than others.Search for burial locations of veterans and their family members in VA National Cemeteries, state veterans cemeteries, various other military and Department of Interior cemeteries, and for veterans buried in private cemeteries when the grave is marked with a government grave marker.

Who can I turn to for help with my research?


Many public libraries and institutions offer WWI genealogy workshops and materials written about WWI genealogy. Click here to view a directory of Missouri institutions (local historical societies, museums, and genealogical societies) in your area, or contact your local public library. Additionally, there are many great online sources written on WWI genealogy.

Online Guides: 

•  Williams, Scott K. Researching Missouri World War One Military Personnel
• Plante, Trevor K. Military Service Records at the National Archives Reference Information Paper 109, 2009.
• Yockelson, Mitchell. They Answered the Call: Military Service in the United States Army During World War I, 1917-1919.  Prologue Magazine, Fall 1998.
• Family Tree Magazine's List of World War I Genealogy Resources 

John M. Goad

A pilot serving with the Royal Air Force, John M. Goad became the first soldier from Greene County to die in the war when he was shot down behind enemy lines on June 27, 1918.  The son of a prominent attorney, an American Legion Post was named for him and Sergeant Homer J. Ballinger shortly after the war.  Goad’s family believed his body had been lost until it was positively identified in 1922.  The remains were returned to Springfield and buried in the National Cemetery on Memorial Day.

Gold Star Mothers

Named by the emblem that signified their loss, the Gold Star Mothers, a group that originated during World War I, wanted more than to grieve over the death of their loved ones. 

Mrs. Conrad Neth next to a grave
at Aisne-Marne American Cemetery

The 1973 St. Louis Records Center Fire and its Impact on WWI Military Records

Recently, the project staff visited the National Archives and Records Administration’s (NARA’s) new facilities in St. Louis, Missouri.  The National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) is also located at the facility.  The building houses over 100 million personnel files of veterans and former civil service employees dating back to the mid-19^th Century.  Digitizing the military records of Missourians who participated in World War I will be a huge project. Although Navy and Marine records are readily available, in 1973, 80-85% of the Army records of those who served between 1912 and 1959 were destroyed in a fire.  The fire, one of the worst archival fires in U. S. history, destroyed an estimated 16-18 million records.


An aerial view of the fire. St. Louis Post Dispatch file photo

Edwin Wiggins, Company A, 128th Machine Gun Battalion

Edwin Wiggins of Carthage, Missouri, served in the Missouri National Guard as a Private in Company A, 2nd Missouri Infantry during the Mexican Border Conflict in 1916. In 1917, shortly after the United States declared war on Germany, he was inducted into service at Nevada, Missouri. Wiggins was sent overseas as a Sergeant in Company A, 128th Machine Gun Battalion. He was killed in action on September 29th, 1918, during the Meuse-Argonne offensive.