LibGuides: World War I, 1914-1918: Selected Primary Sources

Manuscript Collections

World War I: Above and Beyond the Battlefield First person accounts of the war from the Veterans History Project. May include letters, diaries, sound recordings and interview transcripts.
John J. Pershing Papers
The diaries, notebooks, and address books of John Joseph Pershing (1860-1948), U.S. army officer and commander-in-chief of the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I, are part of a larger collection of Pershing papers available for research use onsite in the Manuscript Reading Room of the Library of Congress.
George S. Patton Papers: Diaries, 1910 to 1945
The diaries of U.S. army officer George S. Patton (1885-1945) are part of a larger collection of Patton papers available for research use onsite in the Manuscript Reading Room of the Library of Congress. The collection documents Patton's military career, including his attendance at the United States Military Academy at West Point, 1904-1909; his service on the Mexican border as a member of John J. Pershing's Mexican Punitive Expedition, 1916-1917; his service as an aide-de-camp to Pershing and later as a tank commander in World War I, 1917-1919; and his military career from 1938 to 1945.

Public Resolution 65-1, 40 STAT 1
Congress declares war.
Proclamation 1364
President Wilsons’ Proclamation 1364 of April 6, 1917 declared that a state of war existed between the United States and the Imperial German Government.
Treaty of peace with Germany

Stars and Stripes: The American Soldiers' Newspaper of World War I, 1918 to 1919 This online collection includes the complete seventy-one-week run of The Stars and Stripes World War I edition. The Stars and Stripes was published in France by the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) of the United States Army from February 8, 1918, to June 13, 1919.
War of the Nations, 1919

The war with Germany: a statistical summary
Notable Registrants of the World War I Draft The 24 million World War I Draft Registration Cards in the custody of the National Archives at Atlanta provide an invaluable resource for academic researchers and genealogists. All males in the United States, born between the years 1872 and 1900, were required by law to register for the draft throughout 1917 and 1918.