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PETERBOROUGH -- "In the midst of the most
terrible war of its time," said Bruce Hunter, "men found the
ability to share their spirit and feelings through the form of trench
art."
Hunter, a Peterborough resident and business owner,
has spent years assembling what may be the foremost collection of trench
art in New England, if not one the most impressive collections in the
world.
The term "trench art" can be used to
describe any objects made by soldiers, prisoners of war, and civilians
from materials associated in time and space with armed conflict or its
consequences. Soldiers at war from antiquity to our current
conflicts have always made things from battlefield detritus, such as
dice hammered out of lead musket balls, cribbage boards from old bones,
trinket boxes from scraps of wood, and coverlets from discarded
uniforms. But trench art remains most closely associated with World War
I.
Because of the immensity of the conflict and the
static nature of trench combat, World War I generated the greatest
variety and volume of trench art. Initially, the term was applied
to artwork that soldiers manufactured from spent artillery shells, which
were in no short supply on the bloody battlefields of Europe from 1914
to 1918.
The First World War was the first major
conflict to fully employ modern military killing technology. A
French-made light-weight cannon that could accurately fire 20 75mm
diameter shells per minute, combined with the invention of the
machinegun, produced a slaughter unprecedented in the annals of human
history. The gallant forward charge of previous wars was reduced
to an exercise in mass suicide.
Entire armies were forced to dig in for safety.
The tactic of trench warfare, which had first been used in the American
Civil War, became the fighting order of the day. The conflict
evolved into an interminably brutal and tedious war of attrition.
While thousands of broken bodies piled up daily on
the killing fields, mountains of spent brass artillery shells that
typically measured three inches in diameter and nearly 12 inches in
length cluttered the trenches. Historians estimate that during the
first hour of the Battle of the Somme, 30,000 British soldiers were
killed when they assaulted German lines. In the Battle of Verdun,
10 million shells were fired in a single day.
In time, surviving soldiers in the trenches became
aware that the spent brass shell cases, which were shaped like tall
drinking glasses, made perfect vases for bunches of daffodils, wild
roses, or poppies which covered those Flanders fields every
summer. Because many of the men in those volunteer armies were
artisans, skilled plumbers, metal workers and silversmiths, they were
able to apply the skills of their peacetime professions to the task of
forging objects of beauty out of the discarded waste products of
grand-scale industrial warfare.
It was a natural development for these men to take
the plain cylindrical shell cases and decorate them using hammers,
punches, scribers, and other tools to imprint designs that have detail
that ranges from child-like simplicity to baroque intricacy.
Some historians call trench art "soldiers'
scrimshaw."
Typically, the soldier artisans would decorate
the shells with flowers, patriotic emblems, or scenes remembered from
home. Frequently, the name of the latest battle and year would be
incorporated into the design or used as a border around the
plinth. The top of the shell would often be crenellated and flared
out. Ingenious soldiers would use the gears on the gun mounting to
pinch flutes in the body of the shells.
Unfortunately, because some officers in the trenches
frowned on the soldiers using recyclable war materials, which were
technically government property, for artistic purposes, many of the
battlefield artists remain anonymous because they were afraid to sign
their names to their handiwork.
The finished works of trench art were often sent home as souvenirs or
exchanged with other soldiers. In some cases, prisoners of war
traded trench art creations with the enemy captors for |
favors or extra rations.
In addition to flower vases, soldier artisans
also fashioned battlefield scrap materials into a diverse range of
decorative, practical and peaceful items such as match boxes, cigarette lighters,
letter openers, chess boards, picture frames, gongs and wind
chimes. Many works were modified or personalized to reflect an
individual artistic expression.
In addition to the commonly available artillery shell
casings, World War I trench art was also created from bullets, defused
grenades, bayonets, wooden airplane propellers, aluminum from downed
zeppelins, ammunition magazine clips, shrapnel, and even bone.
The bone used in trench art most
typically came from food animals, such as cows and sheep. But in
the book, "Trench Art: A Brief History & Guide 1914-1939"
by Nicholas J. Saunders, the author records one instance where a soldier
carved a memento from the arm bone of a fallen comrade as a tribute to
his bravery and sacrifice.
Although it may sound morbid, most people who
behold trench art report that they are moved by the vivid example of the
proverbial sword beaten into the plowshare.
Hunter, who owns Hunter Environmental Sciences
in Peterborough's Depot Square, is a history buff and antique
collector. He found his first piece of trench art at a flea market
in Fort Collins, Colo., in 1996. The anonymous soldier artisan,
who had defused and decorated the 37mm artillery shell, created a
souvenir of the battle of Verdun.
When the antique dealer explained the story of
the decorated shell, Hunter was transfixed.
Gradually, Hunter amassed more pieces of trench art
that he located in his world travels at antique shops, military swaps,
and even yard sales. Today, Hunter and his wife, Susie, who has
also become an avid collector, own hundreds of trench art items.
The couple has effectively transformed part of their Peterborough home
into an art and history museum.
Hunter considers it is a tragedy that for
decades the significance of trench art had largely been forgotten or
ignored by military historians and dismissed or devalued by art
critics. Consequently, many people are unaware of the value of
their find when they come across trench art that had been stashed away
in their garages, attics, or basements, by their grandfathers and
great-grandfathers who fought in the Great War.
Too may times, people who fail to recognize trench
art when they find it treat the historic art relics as trash or scrap
metal for the recycling heap.
"Each item is a testament to the skills and
fortitude of human beings under the most unbearable pressures of modern
war," writes Saunders in his book that to date remains the only
authoritative text on the subject. "Each object, however
humble, is a symbol of the human spirit in extremis."
Hunter, who says he plans to someday publish
his own book on the subject, is happy that the technology of the
Internet is increasingly raising the public awareness of trench art.
Hunter has lent some of his more unusual and
remarkable examples of trench art to the Historical Society of Cheshire
County in Keene, which is displaying the artwork through May 10.
He is grateful to Historical Society Director
Alan Rumrill and his assistants, Roxann Roy and Marie Royce Ruffle, for
their meticulous work in presenting the trench art aesthetically and
informatively in their gallery.
In addition to trench art, the gallery also has
assembled detailed maps of the European battle theater of World War
I. There are also vintage uniforms, photographs, personal letters
and authentic recruitment posters from the era on display.
The gallery is located at 246 Main Street in
Keene. It is open Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.,
Wednesday evenings 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., and Saturday 9 a.m. to noon.
Admission is free. For further information, call 352-1895.
Hunter is currently negotiating with the
Peterborough Historical Society to exhibit his trench art in its gallery
later this year. |
