World War I soldier Photo: Sanford Springvale Historical Society
By Patricia Violette-Adams, SSHS Executive Director
The Sanford-Springvale Historical Society’s new World War I exhibit, “Over There,” invites visitors to consider how a distant war became a deeply local story. Open now at the Historical Museum, the exhibit highlights Maine service members from the Sanford and Springvale area while also examining the dangerous conditions they faced overseas, including disease, battlefield gas and loss.
For Sanford and Springvale, World War I was not only a matter of headlines from Europe. Local families watched sons, brothers, neighbors and coworkers leave home for military training and, in some cases, service “over there” with the American Expeditionary Forces. The community’s wartime role also extended beyond the men in uniform. Residents supported Liberty Loan drives, conservation efforts and relief work, while local institutions and families gathered supplies, raised funds and followed casualty lists with growing anxiety.
The exhibit’s local focus helps visitors see the war through the experiences of a mill town community. Sanford’s industrial identity shaped daily life before the war, and wartime demands placed new pressure on workers, households and civic groups. Families coped with separation and uncertainty, churches and community organizations offered support, and public gatherings helped turn private worry into shared responsibility. When soldiers returned, they brought home memories of modern warfare that were difficult for many civilians to fully understand and the term “shell-shocked” became what we know today as “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.”
Disease was one of the war’s most frightening enemies. Crowded camps, troop ships and trenches allowed illness to spread quickly among soldiers, and the influenza pandemic of 1918 near the end of the war reached communities across the country. In Sanford and Springvale, as elsewhere, disease blurred the line between home front and battlefront. Even residents who never saw Europe felt the war’s reach through sickness, quarantine, grief and the work required to care for neighbors.
WWI Red Cross Canteen worker
The Red Cross became one of the clearest links between local service and overseas suffering. Volunteers in communities like Sanford and Springvale rolled bandages, prepared comfort items, raised money and supported medical relief for soldiers and civilians. Their work gave residents a practical way to respond to the scale of the conflict. Through such efforts, the war entered sewing rooms, meeting halls and schoolrooms as well as barracks and trenches.
Gas-masked soldier in a trench
“Over There” also confronts one of World War I’s most terrifying developments: chemical warfare. Poison gases such as chlorine, phosgene and mustard gas injured eyes, lungs and skin, and they could leave survivors with lasting respiratory damage and trauma. Gas masks became symbols of the new battlefield, where danger could drift silently across trenches. For local soldiers, the threat of gas was part of a broader landscape of mud, artillery, infection and exhaustion.
By pairing personal stories with the themes “Honoring Maine’s Sons and Service During WWI” and “Gas, Disease, and Loss: Hazardous Conditions of the Great War,” the Sanford-Springvale Historical Society places national history on familiar ground. The exhibit asks visitors to remember not only Sanford’s sons, but also the households that waited, the volunteers who served at home, and the veterans who returned to a changed community.
The Sanford-Springvale Historical Society at 505 Main Street in Springvale, is open Fridays from 10am to 4pm and Saturdays from 10am to 2pm. Visitation is also available by appointment. Please call 207-490-1028 for more information.
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