Special Collections - Black Experience

Primary Sources

A sampling of books found in Special Collections that can be used as primary sources

Secondary Sources in Special Collections

• African-American Soldiers with the 317th Engineers in World War I, Photo Album. SPOV-018
  • A photo album documenting the efforts of the 317th Engineers, an African-American unit, during World War I. This album begins with the handwritten title “Photographic Record of the 317th Engineers in France 1918 Order No. 1278 Series 1 to 273.” Official military photographs depicting the regiment’s engineering efforts throughout the war. The images show the construction of wooden roadways, connecting French and German train lines, building bridges over various rivers, and creating pathways over large craters that had been blown in existing roads. Images also depict the ruins of churches and homes and the bodies of fallen soldiers.