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On the date

Friday, August 17, 1917

From the day

Perspective: The Street Photographer · Sight

The mid-August sun glares off the brass buttons of doughboys marching toward the docks, their stiff wool tunics casting sharp, elongated shadows across the dusty cobblestones. I duck behind a newsstand to frame a shot of a gentleman in a high-collared shirt snatching up a paper, the headline screaming of Haig’s success while a nearby motorcar idles, its owner grumbling as he pays a lousy **$0.15** for a single gallon of fuel. The sharp scent of gasoline and horse manure hangs heavy in the humid air, competing with the distant, jaunty whistle of "Over There" drifting from a second-story window. I click my shutter just as a young boy in knickers clutches a box of Lincoln Logs, his face a ghostly silhouette against the vibrant, red-and-blue "Uncle Sam Wants YOU" poster plastered to the brick wall.

Memories from that day

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Best-selling Sheet Music

Over There

George M. Cohan

The must-have

Lincoln Logs

Slang

Slang of the decade

General

lousysnapshotmovies

Soldiers

over the topblightyno man's landcooties

Suffragette

deeds not wordsvotes for women

Catchphrases of 1917

  • Uncle Sam wants YOU

Tech Check

Modern Zipper & Drone Torpedoes.

Cost of Living (1910)

Loaf of Bread

$0.06

Gallon of Gas

$0.15

Average Home

$3,600

New Car

$950

Time Elapsed

39,740 days ago

(108 years, 320 days)