Troy University exhibit at Gadsden Public Library tells military history through postcards
A different take on the United States’ military history will be on display through Christmas at the Gadsden Public Library.
“Military Service: A History in Postcards” is a traveling exhibit from Troy University, through a grant from the Alabama Humanities Foundation, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities.
It includes representations of 1,500 postcards spanning more than three generations of military service, 1903 to 1966. They contain more than 2,000 images that show more than 180 U.S. cities and 204 U.S. military bases, camps and forts.
These postcards are part of a collection of 26,000 postcards donated to Troy University by Dr. Wade Hall (1934-2015), who received his undergraduate degree at Troy and went on to teach English for three decades at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky, and author numerous books.
Hall also was a collector and historian, and his postcards reflect all 50 U.S. states and 82 different countries.
The traveling display features eight double-sided panels covering such topics as American Expeditionary Forces; Personal Photo Postcards; Slogans, Patriotism and Prayer Cards; Army World War II; Navy Pre-World War II; Navy World War II; Military Romance Cards; Marine Corps; Military Schools; Air Force and Army Air Forces; Alabama Military; and Cavalry.
Slideshows of the military postcards are available at https://troy.libguides.com/military.
Other postcards from Alabama and elsewhere that have been digitized can be viewed at https://resources.troy.edu/wadehall/ or http://alabamamosaic.org/.
This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Exploring military history through postcards
