The Snapshots in Time Collection

Wrecked Biplane and Field Artillery Displayed as War Trophies, Ohio Exhibition Hall, c. 1918-1919

Wrecked Biplane and Field Artillery Displayed as War Trophies, Ohio Exhibition Hall, c. 1918-1919

The wooden ribs and fabric skin of a dismantled World War I biplane lie among captured field guns in this Ohio exhibition hall, part of a public war trophies display common in the years following the Armistice. Such exhibitions brought tangible relics of the battlefield to American civilians, often in support of Liberty or Victory Loan fundraising campaigns, and offered the public a rare, close-up look at the machinery of modern warfare. Project: 218708