Thanksgiving DeLuxe, 1918: Holidays in the Magazines of Army Hospitals

Heads Up, March 19, 1919: "Will it ever be forgotten?" National Library of Medicine.

In 1918 and 1919, dozens of military hospitals in twenty-one states and the District of Columbia published their own magazines — "house organs", as they were called. Endorsed by the Surgeon General's Office, they were made by wounded soldiers and hospital staff, who contributed articles, jokes, poems and drawings. The work was a distraction from wounds, influenza and other infections, gas, gangrene and shell shock, a "safety valve" for the stress of soldiers and their carers. The National Library of Medicine holds many of them.

Life in the hospital camps

Magazines such as the Star-Shell of General Hospital No. 17 in Markleton, Pennsylvania, Heads Up of Debarkation Hospital No. 52 in Richmond, Virginia, and The Plattsburg Reflex of General Hospital No. 30 in Plattsburgh, New York, mixed cartoons, decorations, photographs and text in the playful print style of their day. Their columns kept readers informed and entertained, and urged them to join in the hospital's social life. Often they featured the charities — the Jewish Welfare Board, the Knights of Columbus, the Salvation Army and the YMCA — whose recreation programs were as much part of hospital life as medicine and surgery.

The Plattsburg Reflex, Christmas 1918. National Library of Medicine.

"Patients Fully Enjoy Thanksgiving DeLuxe"

The holidays brought out the best in these magazines. On November 30, 1918, Bombproof, "a weekly paper devoted to the interests of U.S. Army General Hospital No. 18" in Waynesville, North Carolina, reported the hospital's Thanksgiving.

The day began badly: when the sergeant blew the wake-up whistle in the rain, "it looked like Thanksgiving day was going to be a good day for ducks". But the sun soon came out over the mountains. There had been much talk of a big turkey dinner, and when the hungry men filed into the mess hall — decorated, the tables spread, a ten-piece orchestra playing — the feast "proved to be far beyond expectations". One patient ate five dishes of ice cream; another ate so much turkey that he had no room left for dessert. "Well, after this," many said, "I can safely say I've eaten one square meal in the army."

Bombproof, November 30, 1918. National Library of Medicine.

The orchestra, made up of patients and local musicians and organized under the War Department's director of military hospital music, played a continuous concert, joined by a singer and a violinist from out of town.

The menu: oyster soup and crackers, turkey and dressing with giblet sauce, baked corn, candied sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, celery, olives, jelly, plum pudding, ice cream, coffee, nuts and fruit.

Sources

• Jeffrey S. Reznick and Elizabeth A. Mullen, National Library of Medicine, "Thanksgiving DeLuxe, 1918," Circulating Now blog; rewritten in hubnx's own words, with lines quoted from Bombproof. Magazine covers and pages from the library's collections.