World War I Records

Highlights From Our Collection

Lusitania

Choctaw language

Zimmermann Telegram

U*S*A Bonds

Intelligence Division Reports

Researching Our Records

•  Records Relating to the Meuse-Argonne Offensive
   
• They Answered the Call, Military Service in the United States Army During World War I, 1917-1919 , an article in Prologue magazine, Fall 1998

Draft Registration Cards

The registration cards consist of approximately 24,000,000 cards of men who registered for the draft. The cards are arranged by state. They usually include:

• the registrant's full name
• date and place of birth
• race
• citizenship
• occupation
• personal description
• signature

Not all of the men who registered for the draft actually served in the military, and not all men who served in the military registered for the draft.

• World War I Draft Registration Cards digitized on FamilySearch website (free)
   
• World War I Draft Registration Cards, background information
   
• World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, digitized and available on Ancestry.com (free on NARA computers, otherwise by subscription)
   
• International Researchers "Jazzed" about Southeast Region's WWI Draft Registration Cards, NARA news item
   
• Selected World War I Draft Registration Cards of the Famous, Infamous, and Interesting, from the National Archives at Atlanta
   

African Americans in WW1

• Records of Military Agencies Relating to African Americans from the Post-World War I Period to the Korean War , Reference Information Paper
   

Veterans Homes

• Leavenworth Soldiers Home, Leavenworth, Kansas, ca. 1885 - ca. 1933, Sample Case Files of Veterans Temporarily at the Branch
   
• Leavenworth Soldiers Home, Leavenworth, Kansas, ca. 1885 - ca. 1933, Sample Case Files of Veterans
   
• Sawtelle Disabled Veterans Home Case Files, Los Angeles, 1888-1933
   

Deaths

• World War I Dead Buried in American Battle Monument Commission Cemeteries, Missing in Action, or Buried or Lost at Sea
   
• World War I Gold Star Mothers Pilgrimages, an article in Prologue magazine
   

Other

• Eyewitness exhibit, Kapitänleutnant Walter Schwieger - Sinking of the RMS Lusitania, 1915
   
• Teaching With Documents: The Zimmermann Telegram
   
• More World War I links from the Archives Library Information Center