The exhibit draw a small crowd as Dr. Samuel Hyde Jr., director of the center, welcomed those present and gave a brief introduction to the exhibit.
The event featured a number of panels displaying a large number of photographs from the war, plus posters, official papers, and weapons of trench warfare, as well as uniforms, dioramas, audio recordings of trench warfare, and also the casualties, medical care, and life after the war. Some exhibits featured items on loan from persons throughout southeast Louisiana, including St. Tammany Parish.
There was a focus on the horrors of war, the invention of the machine gun and the introduction of gas/chemical warfare. There was also information on the influenza epidemic and unsanitary conditions in the trenches that led to disease and death.
The first panel tried to explain the cause of the first world war, but as in all political stirrings, it was a number of things all boiling over at the same time. Special attention was given to the things that occurred in World War I that set the stage for World War II some twenty years later.
Entitled "The War That Did Not End All Wars: Southeast Louisiana and the Horror of WWI," the exhibit was put together with the help of many donors and contributors.
It will run through December 10, with the archives room open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, and on Friday from 8 a.m. to noon.
The website for the Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies and Archives is located at the following link: http://www.southeastern.edu/acad_research/programs/csls/index.html
