Photographsfrom the World War I
Memoir ofMargaret Hall

Introduction

As a member of the American Red Cross in France during World War I, Massachusetts-born Margaret Hall worked at a canteen at a railroad junction in the town of Châlons. On her return home she compiled a typescript narrative from the letters and diary passages that she wrote while overseas. Her words offer a first-hand account of life on the Western Front in the last months of the war. She also copiously illustrated the text with her own photographs, which depict soldiers, canteens, and the extensive destruction and ruin following the war.

This website allows users to browse and search all 246 photographs taken by Margaret Hall and 29 additional illustrative items from her volume, part of the collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS). Her typescript narrative (Letters and Photographs from the Battle Country, 1918-1919) was the source document for a new MHS publication, Letters and Photographs from the Battle Country: The World War I Memoir of Margaret Hall.