On the outbreak of war, both the Joint War Committee and the War Office were inundated with offers of buildings for use as a temporary hospitals. The Red Cross administered 3,000 of them. This picture shows a “hospital” ward with volunteer nurses and patients at a country house in Lyme Regis, Dorset, 20 March 1915. Find out more about auxiliary hospitals during the wars. Become a health and social care volunteer.
Country House Eikenhoven (1915-16) in Driebergen, the Netherlands, by Willem Noorlander
I wrote the following article back in 2006 and it was published in that July’s issue of Ancestors, a magazine published by The National Archives but now, alas, defunct. The Work of Women Doct…
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Built in 1818, this National Historic Landmark served as the Confederate Executive Mansion during the war. Guided tours of the restored house–the elegant public rooms as well as the private living quarters–explore the lives of the people who lived and worked there. We offer daily tours of the White House of the Confederacy!
Q 61127. "White House" a position captured by the Hood Battalion Royal Naval Division.
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The images, taken by an unknown photographer, focus on the daily life of soldiers in the trenches.
Early 20th-century postcards of the ruins of Wilmer McLean's house, where Lee surrendered to Grant on April 9, 1865. (National Park Service) | CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE. (National Park Service) Like this blog on Facebook | Follow me on Twitter Fifty years after the Civil War, the once-impressive, two-story brick house in Appomattox Court House Va., where Lee surrendered to Grant lay in ruins. "No one familiar with Civil War history," the Washington Times wrote in 1915 about the site of Wilmer McLean's home, "can view this scene of abject and utter desolation ... without an involuntary sigh." Headlines in the Washington Times on Sept. 26, 1915. In its glory days, the "Surrender House" featured seven wide steps leading to a spacious porch supported by five white pillars. McLean's property included a large, well-kept front lawn, a flower garden, ice houses, a weaving house and quarters for slaves. The commodious residence, where Wilmer lived with his wife Virginia, was described as one of the finest in the state at the time — a "typical country residence of a Virginia gentleman of wealth and culture." Unable to keep up with mortgage payments, McLean defaulted on a bank loan after the war, and the house was sold at public auction in 1869. After a succession of owners, it was purchased in 1891 for $10,000 by former Union officer Myron Dunlap, who originally planned to hold Grand Army of the Republic gatherings at the site. Later, Dunlap and other investors aimed to dismantle the structure and display it at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. That was followed by another scheme to haul most of it off to Washington, re-build it as a Civil War museum, and charge visitors admission. The "Surrender House" was dismantled in 1893 for a move, but both plans were scotched for lack of money and legal issues. And so the remains of the historic house just sat there. In the years afterward, nature, thieves and souvenir hunters targeted the mishmash of bricks and rotting wood. "The McLean house site," the Times wrote, "is a foreboding looking, dank dark spot in the woods, overgrown with tall, foul-smelling weeds, saplings and underbrush." To get there, the Times reporter maneuvered through a cornfield that once was McLean's spacious front yard. The only mention of the site's historical importance was an iron tablet near the ruins that noted: "Gen. Robert E. Lee, C.S.A., met and agreed upon terms of the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia on the afternoon of April 9, 1865." Near the plaque, the reporter discovered a ramshackle ice house and a small weaving house; in a thicket lay three large piles — all that was left of the historic home. An image of the iron historical tablet at the McLean House site appeared in the Washington Times on Sept. 26, 1915. "The wood is water-logged, moss-covered, and so soft and decomposed that a finger will make an impression in it," the Times reported. "The steps are intact and lie upon one of the piles. The lumber from which the porch was constructed lies rotting on another pile, with weeds, vines and underbrush almost obscuring it from view." A "greenish accumulation" coated piles of crumbling brick. To keep intruders from the ruins, a makeshift, wire gate stood near the original entrance to the house. The unofficial tour guide and watchman of the rubble was R.H. Browning, who lived across the road. He complained to the Times reporter about thieves swiping McLean house woodwork to use as firewood. Browning, who claimed to have witnessed Lee's surrender as a boy, used "shotgun methods" to chase off those miscreants. It apparently was a losing battle. April 1865 photo of McLean house by Timothy O'Sullivan. (Library of Congress) Schoolchildren examine bricks at the McLean house ruins. (National Park Service) An early 20th-century postcard of visitors at the ruins of the McLean ice house. (National Park Service) Several historic buildings in the rural village suffered from neglect, the Times reported. The old Raine tavern was in "dilapidated and tumbled-down condition." Weeds amd underbrush hid the charred ruins of the war-time courthouse, which burned in 1892. The city jail nearby was an eyesore, with a "badly dilapidated" roof and "decomposing and disintegrating" bricks. A hotel, used as a headquarters by both armies, sat in a "sad state of disrepair." "The raging winds and waters have done their worst," the Richmond Times-Dispatch editorialized about Appomattox Courthouse in the summer of 1915, "and what they have left is crumbling from human neglect." Added the newspaper: "Why isn't Appomattox to-day a literal shrine, as well as a historical shrine?" Plans to restore the McLean house stalled early in the 20th century. As late as the 1920s, Civil War veterans occasionally stopped at the site with their families. Tourists often sought souvenirs, so enterprising local boys sold them bricks for candy money. After roads were improved to remote Appomattox Courthouse, even more souvenir-seekers arrived. "The old house," the Richmond Times-Dispatch wrote in 1936, "is scattered from Maine to California." A front-page photo in the Richmond Times-Dispatch on April 17, 1950, of the huge crowd at the official dedication ceremony for the reconstructed Wilmer McLean "Surrender House." In 1940, after Appomattox Courthouse became a national historical monument, momentum finally built to reconstruct the McLean house. The feds conducted archaeological studies and collected data, but the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, stopped the effort. Finally, in 1949, a reconstructed McLean house — using many of the old bricks — opened to the public. The next April, a crowd estimated at 10,000 attended the official dedication ceremony. Direct descendants of Robert E. Lee and Ulysses Grant were honored guests. Bands played Dixie, The Battle Hymn of the Republic, and Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy. Lee biographer Douglas Southall Freeman spoke for 45 minutes. He said he planned to will his tattered, bullet-riddled 61st Virginia flag to the McLean house. Photographers swarmed around U.S. Grant III and Robert E. Lee IV as they stood on the porch for the official ribbon cutting. And a national magazine writer was spotted asking other reporters, "Have you seen any nice old ladies crying?" 1915 was a distant, ugly memory. -- Have something to add (or correct) in this post? E-mail me here. SOURCES -- National Park Service, Appomattox Court House site, accessed April 4, 2020. -- Richmond Times-Dispatch, Aug. 29, 1915, March 24, 1936, April 17, 1950. -- The Washington Times, Sept. 26, 1915.
As someone who loves cooking and experimenting with ingredients at hand, I have always been fascinated by the Wartime kitchens and rationing. I won't say that I wish I had gone through that, but sometimes I wonder if we are just too used to having everything at our fingertips, to having life be so easy that we have become lazy. As with everything else that I go into, I like to research and read and watch as much as I can about certain periods in time, different eras, different ways of doing things. Why? Because I yearn for a simpler time, for a time where we may not have had everything readily available, but family came first, neighbors helped each other and really opened their homes to everyone around them. Unfortunately nowadays, and I'm speaking from my own personal experience, I've noticed that it's every man for themselves and how can we make a quick buck with the least work possible. Honestly, it seems that if there was a robot that could do everything for us, many would jump on that bandwagon pretty quick. But back to the topic at hand. The Wartime Kitchen, rationing and surviving through it. Rationing was introduced in England on January 8, 1940. Here is a little info about it: At the beginning of World War II, the UK imported 55 million tons of foodstuffs per year (70%), including more than 50% of its meat, 70% of its cheese and sugar, nearly 80% of fruits and about 90% of cereals and fats. It was one of the principal strategies of the Axis to attack shipping bound for the UK, restricting British industry and potentially starving the nation into submission. Each person would register with their local shops, and was provided with a ration book containing coupons. The shopkeeper was then provided with enough food for his or her registered customers. When purchasing goods, the purchaser had to give the shopkeeper a coupon as well as money. Rations were the fairest way to ensure people had enough to eat, and many poorer families had the healthiest diet they ever had. Children benefited greatly from this. For example, the number of children in Scotland who died before they reached 1 year of age fell by 27 per cent between 1939 and 1945. In Glasgow, the average height of 13 year olds increased by almost 2 inches (5 cm) by the end of the war. Weekly ration for 1 adult Bacon & Ham 4 oz Meat to the value of 1 shilling and sixpence (around about 1/2 lb minced beef) Butter 2 oz Cheese 2 oz Margarine 4 oz Cooking fat 4 oz Milk 3 pints Sugar 8 oz Preserves 1 lb every 2 months Tea 2 oz Eggs 1 fresh egg per week Sweets/Candy 12 oz every 4 weeks In addition to this a points system was put in place which limited your purchase of tinned or imported goods. 16 points were available in your ration book for every 4 weeks and that 16 points would enable you to purchase for instance, 1 can of tinned fish or 2lbs of dried fruit or 8 lbs of split peas. Here is the Food Minister talking about the food rationing in 1939.... He explains what the Ration books are and how to use them. Women really had to become inventive, they had to learn to make do with the little they got and food was stretched as far as it would go. Aside from the ingredients, there were ways to save on fuel as well while cooking, things like "cooking two at a time", which meant covering a cooking pan with a biscuit tin lid then standing a second pan on top. I don't know how safe that would be or how well the food would turn out, but I think in those days and time, it was a matter of survival. From 1942, there was no more white flour available, so that meant that everyone was consuming the National Wholemeal Bread. There were no supermarkets, so shopping for groceries would mean going to different stores, such as the butcher, grocer etc. Actually, growing up I remember that is the way we did food shopping too, we went to the butcher, we went to the market and the bakery etc. Eggs were extremely hard to come by, so most people used powdered eggs. One packet would be equal to 12 eggs and those had to last you at least 8 weeks, as even the powdered eggs were rationed. One of the items not rationed and available probably most of the time, were potatoes. The Government even came up with a "Dig for Victory" campaign, encouraging everyone to grow vegetables in their gardens or on any spare piece of land they could find. The Ministry of Food organized local cookery classes and demonstrations to teach people how to cook with what they had and how to use the vegetables they grew in meals. It was hard to come by food. Once you registered with a certain shop, you couldn't really go anywhere else to get your rations, so it usually meant standing in long lines for a very long time just to get your food. It was about this time that the Black Market came into play, and even though if you were caught you were punished with huge fines, people still risked it in order to get butter, sugar and even cigarettes and often times at exuberant prices. Rationing officially ended July 4, 1954. I've often thought about trying to cook just Wartime recipes for a pay period, and seeing how we do. I think the only thing that has held me back from trying, is the family, I'm not sure my husband and children would be interested in this sort of experiment. I may just come up with a menu anyway and introduce a few meals here and there, might be easier to do it that way than shock them into it LOL When it comes to wartime cooking and depression recipes, there are a few places online you can go to. I think one of my favorite YouTube Channels is the Great Depression Cooking with Clara. Love it :) Great Depression Cooking with Clara Season 1 Another great one to watch is Granny Doris, though I've only found 3 episodes so far. Here is a PDF booklet with some recipes for you.... Home Front Recipes You can find many on Clara's videos and by googling for wartime recipes. I think if anything, after all the reading and the video watching I've done, it's taught me that I need to be more flexible in the kitchen, to really push myself to use what I have on hand and not just ignore the ingredient because it doesn't fit into a specific dish or recipe. I don't know about you all, but I will admit that I have stuff in the freezer, refrigerator and pantry that tends to just sit there and not get used, and yes, I've even had to throw something out because it's past it's due date. In a day and time where everything is getting so expensive, I want to be able to use what I have available and not be wasteful. Will I succeed every step of the way? Probably not. But I am determined to give it a good try. I'm going to continue researching, applying what I have learned and strive towards a more self sustainable way of life. Growing some of my own vegetables is definitely a step in the right direction. I do hope you have found some of this information interesting, matter of fact I'm using it with my kids for homeschooling and they find it just as fascinating as I do. Though with them, we're not just concentrating on the cooking side of the wartime and depression eras, but on everything else too.....the war itself, air raids, etc. I'm off to watch The Wartime Kitchen and Garden. It is quite an old series that unfortunately was never made into DVD or sold to the public (much to my chagrin). I managed to find a few episodes on YouTube so you can watch too if you would like :) Episode 2 Episode 3 Hope you enjoy it :) Images found online through BBC. Videos from YouTube
Photographic Print of British army burning the White House in 1814 during the War of 1812. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration #MediaStorehouse
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A busy Victoria Street and the exterior of. Victoria Station 1915's London.
Built in 1818, this National Historic Landmark served as the Confederate Executive Mansion during the war. Guided tours of the restored house–the elegant public rooms as well as the private living quarters–explore the lives of the people who lived and worked there. We offer daily tours of the White House of the Confederacy!
The Moscow House of Photography has prepared a project called 'The War That Ended Peace', depicting the personal experiences of those involved.
UNITED KINGDOM London Imperial War Museum
By the time of the Great War, photography was entering a robust seventy-fifth year. The cumbersome equipment and demanding processes of earlier battlefields had been replaced by the comparatively effortless Speed Graphic and Kodak Brownie cameras, collodion dry plate and gelatin roll film. Perhaps more importantly, technological innovations such as chromolithography and rotogravure had made possible the mass-production of images that brought the apparent immediacy and inclusivity of the photograph to the offices, parlors and breakfast tables of millions in a quantity that presaged the deluge of pictures we experience today. Postcards, stereoviews, the picture press and the ubiquitous snapshot album carried news and sentiment to and from the front and the domestic sphere. These brightly colored postcards, sent by French families and soldiers during World War I, are part of a set of similar cards available on Flickr from the George Eastman House. Because sending postcards to soldiers was postage-free during the conflict, the cards were mass-produced in great quantity and variety. Imagery offered solace and urged staunch resolve. (Images via George Eastman House)
Dolls' house known as Miss Miles House made in England in 1890
Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich, ca. 1915-1916.
