Search Great War Images from the U of S

Introduction

On June 28, 1914, a young Bosnian nationalist in the then obscure Balkan town of Sarajevo shot and killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This violent but seemingly isolated act set in motion a series of policies that were to culminate in August 1914 in the outbreak of the most destructive war up to that time. The struggle, called by contemporaries “the Great War”, ended in November 1918, after nearly four-and-a-half years of fighting. In 1914, Canada was the senior Dominion in the British Empire and automatically become a belligerent when Britain declared war. This dependency relationship had been recognized by Sir Wilfrid Laurier when, as the Liberal Prime Minister, he had stated in 1910 that “When Britain is at war, Canada is at war. There is no distinction.” It was a global war that saw the end of the three of Europe’s great empires. It was also a war that had a great and lasting impact on University of Saskatchewan. Through the use of published and unpublished resources in the University Archives and Special Collections (University Library), the site will tell stories of both a global and local nature.

The web page was conceived by the University of Saskatchewan Great War commemoration committee that was formed in February of 2014. The site contains material scanned exclusively from the University Archives and Special Collections. The subjects covered are driven by the archival and printed sources in the collection. It is hoped that the presentation of one of a kind and rare material will aid in the research into and knowledge of the Great War. The material has been arranged into five main categories each containing several subdivisions.  There also an essay section for larger works, a guide to archival research and a selected bibliography. The site will continue to be expanded through the addition of scanned material, with a search feature currently in the works.

Members of the University of Saskatchewan Great War Commemoration Committee are Tyla Betke, Louis Christ, Ron Cruikshank, Keith Carlson, Sam Derksen, Patrick Hayes, Russ Isinger, Cathy King, Vera Pezer, Sheena Rowan, Murray Scharf, Eric Story, Bill Waiser,  and Marley Waiser.

Website and database coordinated by Joel Salt with contributions and technical support from Stevie Horn, Craig Harkema, Tim Hutchinson, Beth Richert and John Yobb.  Text was written and edited by Cheryl Avery, David Bindle, Patrick Hayes, Stevie Horn, Cathy King, Richard Rempel, Beth Richert, Eric Story, Bill Waiser, Marley Waiser and Laureen Wing.  The curator was Patrick Hayes.