Artillery Officer in World War I: scrapbook album of Documents, Photographs, Maps, Theater Programs, and Battlefield Ephemera, 1917-1926

American Expeditionary Forces

Photograph

World War I military photo album and scrapbook documenting Richard H. Morrison movement from Berkeley, California as an officer candidate from local recommendations and Army appointment papers to field artillery training, overseas service, postwar discharge, and later reserve artillery activity. Morrison’s record begins in April 1917, as the United States entered the war and began building a mass army under the Selective Service Act, signed May 18, 1917, which authorized the federal government to raise forces for wartime service. Berkeley civic, academic, and banking figures appear at the start of the album, including letters from First National Bank of Berkeley, the University of California School of Jurisprudence at Boalt Hall, and the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce recommending Morrison for appointment in the Officers’ Reserve Corps. The later paperwork follows him through Camp Lewis, Battery A of the 348th Field Artillery, Officers’ Training School, the American Expeditionary Forces, the Saumur Artillery School, service with Battery F of the 108th Field Artillery near Fismes, the Ypres-Lys Offensive, and discharge at the Presidio of San Francisco.

55 page scrapbook album including 27 silver gelatin photos, 5 large maps, and approximately 90 related ephemera, and documents ranging in size from 2" x 3" to large fold out maps roughly 40" in length, with extensive military documents, real photo postcards, news print clippings, brochures, and identification cards. 1917-1926. The album includes signed recommendation letters, special orders transferring Morrison from Co. G, 363rd Infantry to Battery A, 348th Field Artillery, a 1917 Thanksgiving program for Battery A, a printed “Mounted Field Day” program for the 348th Field Artillery, an Army appointment certificate naming Morrison sergeant in Battery A, 348th Field Artillery, and an Officers’ Training School certificate from the 91st Division at Camp Lewis dated April 19, 1918. Military scenes include uniformed group portraits, artillerymen gathered behind sandbags, range practice with horse-drawn guns, mounted officers, a survey instrument captioned “watching ’em land,” and later reserve officer training at Del Monte and the Presidio of Monterey in the 1920s. French material includes a “28th Division in France” route map, a large printed scene of the 28th Division passing through Coulonges on August 4, 1918, a battlefield artillery scene captioned “Battery ‘A’ 108 F.A. Firing Midst Enemy Gas Shells, Varennes-en-Argonne, Meuse, October 3, 1918,” postcards of Chartres and Douai with Morrison’s handwritten travel notes, Paris theater programs for the Bouffes-Parisiens, Folies-Bergère, Apollo, and related performances, and a 1919 typed statement by Morrison declining an Officers’ Reserve Corps commission while listing his overseas duty, artillery schooling, front-line work, and promotion to second lieutenant.

The 91st Division was organized at Camp Lewis in 1917 with men drawn largely from the western states and later served in the Lorraine, Meuse-Argonne, and Ypres-Lys campaigns, placing Morrison’s training record within one of the principal western-state divisions raised for the war. The 108th Field Artillery served with the 28th Division, fought around Fismettes, entered the Meuse-Argonne campaign in September 1918, and was later sent north to support fighting in the Ypres sector, closely matching Morrison’s own typed account of his duty near Fismes and during the Ypres-Lys Offensive. Album leaves are very difficult and many are unbound, but photos and mounted items remain clear and legible. Edges show chipping, tears, and scattered staining; Overall in good condition. The album preserves an unusually full paper and visual trail of one California artillery officer’s movement from university recommendation culture into wartime Army training, combat service, postwar France, and peacetime reserve artillery life.

Item #23405

Price: $1,250.00