1918: A Century Later

One hundred years ago, WWI was raging in Europe. The flu pandemic, which would eventually kill more people than the war, was starting. In the U.S., several states had granted women the right to vote, but female suffrage was not yet universal. The Great Migration of African Americans from the Jim Crow south to the industrialized north had begun. The fight against child labor was being fought in Congress and state houses, and the automobile was beginning to change the country. In Auburn, factories were growing, new residential neighborhoods were being developed and immigrants were still arriving in large numbers. This original exhibit unpacks the world of the year 1918 through objects and stories throughout three galleries of the Museum.