Hi everyone,
Since January 1, I’ve been making the transition, slowly, from the world of 1918 to the world of 2019. People keep asking me what’s going to happen with the blog. I originally envisioned it as strictly a one-year project, but I’m planning to continue into 1919. It won’t be exactly the same, since I won’t ONLY be reading from a hundred years ago. (Doing that for a year is a project. Doing it indefinitely is an eccentricity.) And I won’t be posting as often, since there’s the whole having a life business to attend to.
To keep the spirit alive while I regroup, I’ve been posting some of my favorite images from 1918 on Twitter. Here’s the first week’s worth.
The best art often came in unlikely places, like this ad for Nujol constipation medicine in the January 1918 issue of Woman’s Home Companion.
Woman’s Home Companion, January 1918
One of the highlights of my year of reading as if I were living in 1918 was Erté’s Harper’s Bazar (sic) covers. If I had to pick a favorite, it might be this one from May, titled “Fireflies.”
Longing for a snow day in sunny Cape Town, I found this January 1918 Vanity Fair cover by Gordon Conway, a 23-year-old WOMAN artist.
Continuing with the snow theme, here’s a drawing by Johnny Gruelle (creator of Raggedy Ann and Andy) from Judge, the popular humor magazine.
My dream 1918 bedroom, from an ad for Bozart Rugs.
Ladies’ Home Journal, May 1918
The inaugural cover of The Liberator, March 1918. The magazine succeeded The Masses, which shut down after its editors were (unsuccessfully) prosecuted for obstructing conscription. Hugo Gellert created this and many other Liberator covers.
One of many gorgeous illustrations by Harry Clarke from Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen (1916).
See you soon!
My Life 100 Years Ago 
How glad I am that you’re continuing! I wasn’t aware until now that you had been reading only stuff from 1918. Really?! That’s quite a project. Makes me admire you even more. I’ve had similar projects myself, like the 2010-14 centenary blog, and once I started reading newspapers only backwards in time day by day from a certain year. But I didn’t persevere.
I love the drawing by Gruelle. It strikes me how 2018 some of this 1918 art looks. Maybe because they are picked by someone with a 2018 taste.
I’m all for eccentricities, btw.
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Thanks so much, Lars! Yes, everything I read last year would have been available to someone in 1918, with a few exceptions like important news stories (but not very many) and research for my blog posts. It was an amazing experience, like living in a foreign country. I like your projects and wish I could read your blog!
I’m glad you like the Gruelle drawing–Judge magazine had amazing artists (and incredibly lame jokes). Good point about the art being filtered through current taste–there is plenty of art from the time that I could do without, like the magazine story illustrations, which all look like they’re drawn by the same person.
I agree about eccentricities. A lot of people might say that spending a year only reading things from a hundred years ago was eccentric! I actually tried to find a stronger word but didn’t succeed.
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👏 Stunning! I love Erte’s Harper’s cover and the fairy tale cover is so dreamy. Even the Bozart Rugs is beautiful!
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Amazing, aren’t they? The beauty of 1918 illustrations was the most delightful surprise of the year.
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