Name/Title
StereographEntry/Object ID
2023.055.3.0130Description
A black and white stereograph. Image is of a group of soldiers searching through a large pile of rubble, the remains of a house's window are in the midground. Above the image "W101 (Star)" is printed, below the image "18629 Searching the Ruins, "Somewhere in France."" is printed, to the left of the image "Keystone View Company Copyrighted Manufacturers MADE IN U.S.A. Publishers" is printed, to the right of the image "Meadville, Pa., New York, N. Y., Chicago, Ill., London, England." is printed. On the reverse the following is printed:
18629
SEARCHING THE RUINS "SOMEWHERE IN FRANCE"
Before us lie all that shot and shell have left of a peaceful village. The German have passed by and left their unmistakable mark. Church and dwelling are involved in common ruin. Even teh trees are shattered and shell-torn.
French soldiers are searching the ruins to inter the dead and to recover what they can of value.
In their retreat before the British in 1917, the Germans laid waste thousands of acres of fair and smiling farmland. Houses were burned, fruit trees cut down, and stately shade trees lining the roads were sawed off. The very roads were torn up and destoryed. As far as the eye could see, all was desolation. Cattle, household effects, furniture; even the spoons for the table, the knives and forks, and the cooking utensils, were carried off. What the Germans could not take away they destoryed, so that the villagers returning in sadness to what had once been home and seeking to consturct from fallen bricks and become some semblance of a shelter found not the first necessary householf article.
With open heart, America sent men to reconstruct these devastated villages. For the first time in history frame houses sprang up on the soil of France. Plain they were, and humble, but they were a shelter; they were warm and comfortable. The work was not completed before the German tide of invasion again rolled over the same countryside - the Hindeburg drive in the spring of 1918. The American workmen had to retreat before it abandoning their work, but lingering to the last hour to help the distressed people pack for the second time, their small possessions and tramp sadly away.
Copyright by The Keystone View CompanyCollection
Photograph Collection