Trench Helmets Into Watering Pails

By DAVID W. DUNLAPMAY 10, 2017

“‘The Furlough’ — A French Officer’s Arrival at Home After His Tour in the Trenches: His children, who are ‘doing their bit’ for France by gardening, find a use for his trench helmet not thought of by the general staff.” CreditInternational Film Service/The New York Times Mid-Week Pictorial, May 10, 1917

Neither an identity nor a location was given for this charming picture. Whether the children were put up to the idea of borrowing their father’s trench helmet (look carefully) or did so spontaneously, the moment seems to have been suffused with tenderness and delight. We can only wonder whether the officer ever returned to that bench again, once he retrieved his helmet, dried it out and departed.

“‘The Hero of the Marne’ — Joseph Jacques Césaire Joffre, Marshal of France.”

Marshal Joseph Jacques Césaire Joffre was this week’s cover subject because of his visit to the United States. He was known as the “Hero of the Marne” for his decisive role in the First Battle of the Marne in September 1914, repelling a German offensive that had come within 30 miles of Paris.

Joffre was greeted as a hero on Capitol Hill, not only for his stature but — perhaps — because he made what may have been the shortest speech ever heard in the Senate chamber. In its entirety: “I do not speak English. Vivent les États-Unis!”

“Two More Churches of North France, Mute Witnesses to German Destructiveness: Interior of the church at Roye. It was a fine type of Gothic architecture and was begun in the 12th century and completed about the 16th century.” [The opposite page showed a 16th-century church at Perrone.] CreditPictorial Press/The New York Times Mid-Week Pictorial, May 10, 1917

Times Insider is offering glimpses of some of the most memorable wartime illustrations that appeared in The New York Times Mid-Week Pictorial, on the 100th anniversary of each issue: