Summer Exhibit

Drawing Fire
Bill Mauldin and the WWII GI

This exhibit is now closed.

In the summer of 2012, The First Division Museum at Cantigny presented their summer exhibit, Drawing Fire: Bill Mauldin and the WWII GI. Cartoonist Bill Mauldin’s work during the war humorously captured the experiences of front-line soldiers. His famous characters Willie and Joe spoke for the GIs at the front, men who routinely faced danger and lived in the mud and muck. In 1945, at the age of 23, he became the youngest Pulitzer Prize winner in history with his cartoon depicting American GIs and German POWs.

The exhibit told the GI story using Mauldin’s cartoons and the some of the museum’s extensive but rarely seen World War II collection. Visitors saw more than forty of Mauldin’s cartoons and a variety of artifacts including personal objects carried by soldiers, equipment, decorations, and letters written home during the war. In addition, an interactive allowed visitors to hear German weapons and artillery that GIs would have faced.

Images (Click to Enlarge)