National WWI Museum and Memorial

Photographs and Mourning Cards

A face to remember

A photograph, a few lines of verse, a name in careful script. Mourning cards and photographs helped families preserve memory after death. Displayed in homes, carried in wallets, and shared among loved ones, they became stand-ins for presence.

Mourning card for Private William L. Davis

Mourning cards combined photographs, military service, poetry, and religious imagery into portable memorials that families could preserve for generations.

Piece of off-white paper with a black border. On the left is a drawing of a soldier in uniform and carrying a rifle in the bottom and an American flag wound around a flag pole in the top. On the right is a drawing of the Statue of Liberty with the word LIBERTY above the torch at the top and a British and French flag in emblem shape in the center. Text down the center of the card reads Prvt. Wm. L. Davis / Born June 7, 1895. / Died Aug 7., 1918. / Died from Wounds While Serving / As an Infantryman with / Co

Memorial card for First Lieutenant Ross Lee Williams Memorial cards gave families something to hold when a body was an ocean away. A rank, a place, a date – small confirmations that a life had ended and it was not forgotten. First Lieutenant Ross Lee Williams, a...

Kept by his family after his death, this decorative portrait of First Sergeant Harry N. Kendall pairs his uniformed photograph with patriotic imagery.

An oval image with a black and white photograph of a young man in uniform at the center. Around the photograph there is a golden frame with USA at the bottom, Behind the photograph there is an American flag on a flagpole and standing atop the frame is a bald eagle with outstretched wings.

First Sergeant Harry N. Kendall was killed in action on July 15, 1918 in the Champagne region of France and buried at Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery.

A color photograph of a grassy landscape with rows of white crosses in the ground. In the background stand many trees and there is a white cross in the ground at the center of the image, and small American and French flags in the ground on either side of the cross. The grave reads HARRY N. KENDALL / 1 SCT. 168 INF. 42 DIV. / IOWA JULY 15, 1918.

Memorial certificate for Walter Roy Brien

Framed by religious imagery, this memorial certificate for Walter Roy Brien includes a photograph, a poem, and his birth and death dates.

Living in Nebraska when he enlisted in June 1918, Brien trained at Fort Riley in Kansas. Just months later, he died at Camp Funston from pneumonia caused by influenza, with his mother at his side.