Saturday, July 27, 2013

A Great Source of WWI Images
Those Old Michelin Battlefield Guides

Immediately after the war, the battlefield guides produced by the Michelin Company were state-of-the-art helpers for tourists. Today, however, they would just get you lost. The roads, visual landmarks, and signage today are quite different from those of the 1920s. Nevertheless, I highly recommend that World War I aficionados study these booklets because their photos are superb and unique. They do not seem to be among the stock images presented in other publications. Particularly good are their panoramas of the naked battlefields without any new growth and of the French Poilus at war. Also, some of the detailed background descriptions and details about the battles are excellent and hard to find in more contemporary sources. A selection of photos from my collection appears below along with information on acquiring a starter set for your library. For the present-day battlefield visitors the guides and maps by Toni and Valmai Holt are the best available and we will be featuring them in future postings.  MH

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