Disability and War
The following images invite visitors to consider the relationship between disability and World War I. The Wingfoot Clan illuminates the efforts of nearly 1,000 deaf men and women who helped the war effort. When soldiers came back from the war, these individuals lost not only their jobs, but their contributions have also been lost to history. Group Examination Alpha demonstrates a concerted societal effort to sort out the “mentally unfit” from military men. This eugenicist test helped shape the standardized tests used by colleges and universities in the admissions process today.
World War I was a mass disabling event. An estimated 224,000 American soldiers experienced injuries that removed them from the front. By 1921, 200,000 veterans would return home with a permanent physical and/or mental disability. In response, the United States government embarked on a mass propaganda campaign highlighting the positive treatment of the (white) disabled soldier returning home from the front. In fact, many military rehabilitation programs, like the expansion of Walter Reed Hospital, arose after WWIl. At the same time, the Good Morning caricature encapsulates the sentiment of many disabled veterans who had sacrificed their bodies and their futures to generate wealth for those men who remained safely at home.
These primary sources remind us how the experience of and responses to war impact both physical bodies and our perceptions of disability.
World War I was a mass disabling event. An estimated 224,000 American soldiers experienced injuries that removed them from the front. By 1921, 200,000 veterans would return home with a permanent physical and/or mental disability. In response, the United States government embarked on a mass propaganda campaign highlighting the positive treatment of the (white) disabled soldier returning home from the front. In fact, many military rehabilitation programs, like the expansion of Walter Reed Hospital, arose after WWIl. At the same time, the Good Morning caricature encapsulates the sentiment of many disabled veterans who had sacrificed their bodies and their futures to generate wealth for those men who remained safely at home.
These primary sources remind us how the experience of and responses to war impact both physical bodies and our perceptions of disability.
Group Examination Alpha
1918 psychological test
National Museum of American History
A team of eugenicist scholars created Group Examination Alpha during World War 1 to filter out “mentally unfit soldiers.” 1.75 million recruits took the Army's written Alpha Test or the Beta Test (for illiterates and non-English speakers). This testing data laid the groundwork for later immigration and sterilization laws.
1918 psychological test
National Museum of American History
A team of eugenicist scholars created Group Examination Alpha during World War 1 to filter out “mentally unfit soldiers.” 1.75 million recruits took the Army's written Alpha Test or the Beta Test (for illiterates and non-English speakers). This testing data laid the groundwork for later immigration and sterilization laws.
The Wingfoot Clan
Volume 7, No. 43
May 11, 1918
Gallaudet University Archives, Gift of Robert Werdlg, Jr.
During World War I, Goodyear and Firestone Tire recruited hundreds of deaf workers to Akron, Ohio. The Wingfoot Clan, a publication of the Goodyear tire company, released a special issue in May 1918 highlighting the many contributions of deaf workers. By 1920 ,almost 1,000 deaf men and women were employed in the Goodyear and Firestone plants. However, like other marginalized groups engaged in the war effort, they ultimately lost their positions when servicemen came back from the front.
Volume 7, No. 43
May 11, 1918
Gallaudet University Archives, Gift of Robert Werdlg, Jr.
During World War I, Goodyear and Firestone Tire recruited hundreds of deaf workers to Akron, Ohio. The Wingfoot Clan, a publication of the Goodyear tire company, released a special issue in May 1918 highlighting the many contributions of deaf workers. By 1920 ,almost 1,000 deaf men and women were employed in the Goodyear and Firestone plants. However, like other marginalized groups engaged in the war effort, they ultimately lost their positions when servicemen came back from the front.
Gallaudet University Archives, Gift of Robert Werdlg, Jr.
Deaf women who worked for the balloon and gas mask divisions present the Goodyear banner.
Deaf women who worked for the balloon and gas mask divisions present the Goodyear banner.
At Walter Reed Hospital, a solider who is missing a foot lights a cigarette for another soldier who is missing both arms
Washington D.C., circa 1918
Library of Congress
Roughly 4,400 American Soldiers returned from the war missing part or all of a limb. The image below depicts adaptation to these circumstances at Walter Reed Hospital.
Washington D.C., circa 1918
Library of Congress
Roughly 4,400 American Soldiers returned from the war missing part or all of a limb. The image below depicts adaptation to these circumstances at Walter Reed Hospital.
"My lad, I envy you"
Charles Frederick Peters
1919 cartoon
Library of Congress
This caricature first appeared in Good Morning, a socialist periodical. In it, a fat capitalist looms over a thin disabled veteran. The contrast in body language and the capitalist’s statement, “My lad, I envy you,” calls out the hypocrisy of a war sustained on the backs of veterans that ultimately benefited the wealthy.
Charles Frederick Peters
1919 cartoon
Library of Congress
This caricature first appeared in Good Morning, a socialist periodical. In it, a fat capitalist looms over a thin disabled veteran. The contrast in body language and the capitalist’s statement, “My lad, I envy you,” calls out the hypocrisy of a war sustained on the backs of veterans that ultimately benefited the wealthy.
"Facing the future Uncle Sam offers training to every man disabled in the service - See that your man takes it - Ask the Red Cross"
Edward Charles Chambers
1919 poster
Library of Congress
This poster depicts the bright future ahead of an amputee veteran who is supported by country, faith, and fellow citizens. The image's aesthetic reflects influences from Art Deco, Cubism and Provincetown white-line woodcutting.
Edward Charles Chambers
1919 poster
Library of Congress
This poster depicts the bright future ahead of an amputee veteran who is supported by country, faith, and fellow citizens. The image's aesthetic reflects influences from Art Deco, Cubism and Provincetown white-line woodcutting.
Futurism
Zang tumb tumb: Adrianopoli ottobre 1912: parole in libertà
F.T. Marinetti
Milan, 1914
Special Collections & Archives, Middlebury College
Nominally an account of the 1912 siege of the Ottoman city of Adrianople by Serbia and Bulgaria during the First Balkan War, at which Marinetti was present, Zang Tumb Tumb stands as Marinetti's greatest effort to fulfill the Futurist ethos in the realm of poetry. Utilizing techniques of onomatopoeia and concrete poetry, Marinetti attempts to viscerally depict the sensory experience of war through the poetic medium. In the opening paragraph of The Technical Manifesto of Futurist Literature, Marinetti writes that, “instead of humanizing animals, vegetables, and minerals (an outmoded system) we will be able to animalize, vegetize, mineralize, electrify, or liquefy our style, making it live the life of material.” Zang Tumb Tumb is a depiction of war fought without human subjects and perceived solely as the thunderous clap of artillery, the zoom of an airplane, or the hissing of a balloon.
F.T. Marinetti
Milan, 1914
Special Collections & Archives, Middlebury College
Nominally an account of the 1912 siege of the Ottoman city of Adrianople by Serbia and Bulgaria during the First Balkan War, at which Marinetti was present, Zang Tumb Tumb stands as Marinetti's greatest effort to fulfill the Futurist ethos in the realm of poetry. Utilizing techniques of onomatopoeia and concrete poetry, Marinetti attempts to viscerally depict the sensory experience of war through the poetic medium. In the opening paragraph of The Technical Manifesto of Futurist Literature, Marinetti writes that, “instead of humanizing animals, vegetables, and minerals (an outmoded system) we will be able to animalize, vegetize, mineralize, electrify, or liquefy our style, making it live the life of material.” Zang Tumb Tumb is a depiction of war fought without human subjects and perceived solely as the thunderous clap of artillery, the zoom of an airplane, or the hissing of a balloon.
The exhibition continues…
For more on Futurism and its relationship to World War I, visit the virtual exhibition site via the link below.
For more on Futurism and its relationship to World War I, visit the virtual exhibition site via the link below.