The Great War.

It was the First World War, and although the fighting did not occur on American soil, the effects were felt in many small towns across the nation.

For Superior, Wisconsin, the Great War meant losing shopkeepers, professors, students, brothers, fathers and uncles to the fighting overseas. The war meant a rise in shipbuilding for the Twin Ports, more international news in the papers, and coveted personal letters from sons half a world away. In the local towns, the war meant getting bonds, planting victory gardens, sending packages, and conservation.

Men Mustering in Superior, Wisconsin, in 1917. ¹

This website, one of the multiple websites created under the Century America banner, is meant to take the viewer into the history of area happenings, with a focus on the Superior State Normal School and the surrounding community during the Great War – from when the war started abroad in 1914 through the end of the war in 1918 and into the influenza epidemic in 1919.

Clicking through the above navigation menu, you can peruse photographs and newspaper articles, normal school documents, and other local historical information. Click to enlarge images or headlines. If you select any in-page text, you can hear the text as well.

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¹ “Muster of Troops Superior, Wisconsin,” image, 1917. University Archives, UW-Superior Special Collections; Superior, Wisconsin.