Edith Wharton's travel pass to the front

Postcard sent to Wharton by a soldier

Edith Wharton and the First World War

Edith Wharton and the First World War opens to the public on Memorial Day weekend on the third floor of the mansion and will run throughout the season.

Edith Wharton was profoundly affected by the First World War.  This year, The Mount has designed an exhibition which examines her reaction to the devastation of the world she knew. Using images, artifacts, music, and the written word, it presents aspects of Wharton's experience as a woman and a writer which are less well known to the public.

By throwing herself tirelessly and energetically into work, both literary and charitable, she was able to make use of her talents in ways previously unknown to her. Her charities, which included hostels for refugees and orphans from Belgium, workrooms to help widows and women who had lost their jobs, and hospitals for TB patients, benefited from her amazing organizational and fundraising skills. She used her great talent as a writer to send back reports from the Front detailing the horrors of war, in order to influence the United States to join the conflict.

By highlighting these two aspects of her war experience, we hope to bring a new understanding of Edith Wharton to the public.

(The images on this page appear courtesy of the Beinecke Library, Yale University).