A war-themed cover of the graphic section of the New York Tribune of July 28, 1918.
A new online presentation from the Library of Congress, "Newspaper Pictorials: World War I Rotogravures," features leading newspapers of the day that took advantage of this newly available printing process during the Great War (1914-1918). The presentation, available at //memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/rotogravures/, is from the Library's American Memory Web site.
Rotogravure printing, which produced richly detailed, high-quality illustrations—even on inexpensive newsprint paper—was used to create vivid pictorial sections. Publishers that could afford to invest in the new technology saw sharp increases both in readership and advertising revenue. Rotogravure is widely used today to print many of the tabloid magazines seen on newsstands as well as Sunday newspaper magazines and other supplements. The "Newspaper Pictorials" presentation offers an explanation of this process.
The images in this collection track American sentiment about the war in Europe, week by week, before and after the United States became involved. Events of the war are detailed alongside society news and advertisements touting products of the day, creating a pictorial record of both the war effort and life at home. Users can browse the materials by date and publication title, such as The New York Times, The New York Tribune and The War of the Nations.
From left, "The Finding of the Infant Moses" by Edwin Long from the New York Tribune, June 22, 1919; a French and British soldier on the front from The New York Times, May 23, 1915; Eva Francis in a photo essay on "The Girl of To-Day" from The New York Times, Dec. 7, 1913.
