Historical Thinking is Understanding in Context

Morris, Errol. “Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire,” New York Times July 10, 2007.

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The Lusitania

The Lusitania, 1915

On the evening of May 7th, 1915, the RMS Lusitania was off the coast of Ireland en route to Liverpool from New York when it was torpedoed by a German U-Boat and sank. Nearly 2,000 passengers and crew drowned, including 128 Americans. The loss of life provoked America out of a hereunto neutrality on the ongoing war in Europe. With cries of “Remember the Lusitania” the U.S. entered into WWI within two years. To modern viewers, this image of the Lusitania is emotionally uncharged, if not devoid of interest. But to a viewer in the summer of 1915, it was charged with meaning. It was surrounded many, many other photographs, images and accounts of the sinking of the Lusitania, a cause celèbre. Errol Morris, New York Times, 10 July 2007.

“ENLIST” was a WWI Recruitment poster designed by Fred Spears. Spears’ design was inspired by a news report from Cork, Ireland, that described, among the recovered bodies from the Lusitania, “a mother with a three-month-old child clasped tightly in her arms. Her face wears a half smile. Her baby’s head rests against her breast. No one has tried to separate them.”

“SOME OF THE SIXTY-SIX COFFINS BURIED IN ONE OF THE HUGE GRAVES IN THE QUEENSTOWN CHURCHYARD” The caption is from a two- page pictorial spread in the May 30, 1915, New York Times: “BURYING THE LUSITANIA’S DEAD AND SUCCORING HER SURVIVORS”.

The photograph is of a pocket watch. We learn from the accompanying article that the watch belonged to Percy Rogers and that the watch stopped at exactly 2:30 after “ticking off 30 of the most terrible minutes in history.” Mr. Rogers was in a stateroom when the torpedo struck the Lusitania. He spent his last minutes on board helping women and children climb into lifeboats. Then he climbed into a lifeboat as well. And then the ship sank. The last paragraph of the article is memorable. It quotes “the official German statement” following the sinking of the Lusitania: “Every German heart is filled with joy, pride and gratification.”

Now look at the photograph of the ship one more time. The image remains the same, but clearly we look at it in a different way.

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