WW1 photographic exhibtion opens in Belfast

By Bob Huggins

The role of American soldiers during World War One is the focus of a major photographic exhibition at Belfast City Hall this month.

Fields of Battle, Lands of Peace: The Doughboys 1917 - 1918 is an acclaimed series of centenary photographs, created by Michael St. Maur Sheil to document the battlefields of the First World War as they are today.

The free exhibition has been commissioned and curated by the National World War I Museum and Memorial in the United States, and is supported by the U.S. Department of State and Belfast City Council. 

It will be installed on the grounds of Belfast City Hall where 15 large display stands will present St. Maur Sheil’s evocative images during September.

More than two million American soldiers, or “Doughboys” served in Europe during the war.  This exhibition introduces the viewer to the battlefields which, 100 years ago, now revealed by the photographer as landscapes of great beauty and tranquility.

Photographer Michael St. Maur Sheil said:

“The U.S. involvement in the First World War was a hugely significant factor. Today, it is often overlooked, but it was a New World coming to the aid of an Old World, from which many of the young American soldiers - as first generation immigrants - had sought to escape. Their humanitarian effort in supplying and shipping over seven million tons of food to save the peoples of Belgium and northern France from starvation marked the advent of America as a united nation.”

The Lord Mayor of Belfast, Councillor Nuala McAllister said:  

"Belfast has always had a close association with the United States, and this was clearly demonstrated during both of the World Wars.  The city was at the centre of a dramatic and tragic incident towards the end of the First World War, when in rough seas and poor visibility, between the north east of Ireland and Western Isles of Scotland, the USS Otranto sank after a collision with HMS Kashmir. Just over 300 American Troops were saved by the convoy escort, HMS Mounsey, and were brought to Belfast. Many of the survivors were hospitalized here until their eventual transfer to England. Many of the dead were buried in the City Cemetery, before being exhumed in the early 1920s and either repatriated back to the United States or moved to a permanent home at Broowood American Military Cemetery in Surrey.

“Last year, we hosted the ‘Fields Of Battle, Lands Of Peace’ exhibition as part of our programme to mark the centenary of the events of 1916.  Everyone who visited the exhibition agreed that it was incredibly moving and thought-provoking.  I am sure that this exhibition, focusing on the sacrifice of so many young Americans, will be equally emotional and evoke discussion about how nature can help return landscapes which once were places of such horror to ones where we can reflect and consider the events and consequences of our past.”

 U.S. Consul General Daniel Lawton added:

“I am delighted that this poignant exhibition will be viewed by thousands of people from across the City of Belfast and Northern Ireland, and I am grateful to the Lord Mayor, to her council colleagues, and to her staff, for facilitating it.   The human impact of the Great War across these islands was profound, and I hope the exhibition will help keep alive the legacy of those from both sides of the Atlantic who fought, and those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.   I also pay tribute to the National World War I Museum and to Michael St. Maur Sheil for helping to preserve our shared history during this important centennial period”.

Fields of Battle, Lands of Peace: The Doughboys 1917-1918 has been exhibited in London, Liverpool, Newcastle Upon Tyne, and Edinburgh.  The initiative has been made possible through support from the U.S. Embassy in London.