Soldiers of the Great War, published in 1920 and compiled by William Mitchell Haulsee, Frank George Howe and Alfred Cyril Doyle, was an official attempt to identify with photographs all of the members of the U.S. armed forces who gave their lives in World War I. Searching for an individual in the 1920 book is difficult, since there is no table of contents or index, and individuals are not shown in alphabetical order
Ned Benton, a Larchmont Historical Society member, scanned, indexed and posted online all pages of the book that include fallen soldiers from New York State, which makes it easier to find images of local individuals.
Using the Search Tool to Locate Individuals
The images are stored and displayed as part of the Larchmont Historical Society’s online coverage of the Great War, which can be searched by the soldier’s name – example “Jones” – or residence at time of joining military service – example “Albany.”
Follow the link here to find the search text field.
Input the soldier’s name. All corresponding records will come up. These will appear as scans of pages from Soldiers of the Great War. Clicking on any small image of a page brings up a full-page display. Each photograph contains the name, community, and cause of death or injury:
K.A. Killed in action
D.D. Died of Disease
D.W. Died of Wounds
D.A. Died of Accident
W.A. Wounded in Action
The scanned pages may be downloaded at no cost. See Download a Page for a list of pages and instructions.
Limitations of the Soldiers of the Great War: Additional Search Strategies
Completeness: Please note that Soldiers of the Great War does not include all names and pictures of fallen soldiers in World War I. As described in the book’s introduction:
“We soon learned it would be impossible to obtain the photographs of all the soldiers who died in the great war. Many left no photographs, the relatives of many others were reluctant to part with the picture they had, and in some cases conditions were met most unfavorable to the enterprise, but with an abiding faith in the value of this record to the relatives and friends of the departed soldiers, and to the public as a historical record, the association continued its labors with an increasing degree of success. The collection of materials continued for the period of over one year, during which time they were made ready for publication.” (For more, see Author’s Introduction (1920)
Hometown vs Residence at Enrollment: Please note that the soldiers’ communities, as listed in Soldiers of the Great War, are where they were living when they joined the military, which may not be where they grew up or are memorialized. Thus searching here only by residence may miss some individuals whose photos are in the archives. If you have a list of names from a community’s memorial, a search by name may bring up the missing images.