American Field Service World War I Photographic Collection, 1910-1987

The collection has been arranged at the box level, and has been partially processed into the following four series: Photographs and Negatives, Glass-plate Negatives, Lantern Slides, and Albums.

See the individual series descriptions for more information.

The American Field Service (AFS) originated as the Transportation Department in an auxiliary military hospital, located in the high school building of Lycée Pasteur in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Paris. This volunteer-run, civilian-financed American Ambulance Hospital, an extension of the nearby American Hospital of Paris, opened its doors in September of 1914, shortly after the outbreak of World War I.

Abram Piatt Andrew (1873-1936), former assistant professor of economics at Harvard (1900-1909), Director of the U.S. Mint (1909-1910), and Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under President William H. Taft (1910-1912) drove an ambulance for the American Ambulance Hospital in January 1915, and was made Inspector General of the hospital’s ambulance section, (now called the American Ambulance Field Service) in March 1915.  Working with Henry Sleeper, who was in a Boston office, Andrew did extensive fundraising to purchase ambulances and actively recruit volunteers from the Ivy League and other colleges for six month volunteer missions in France.  He also advocated that the organization work directly with the French Army and more actively in the field.

In July 1916 the American Ambulance Field Service split from the American Ambulance Hospital and established separate headquarters at 21 rue Raynouard in Paris. In May 1917 Andrew worked with Commandant Doumenc, Head of the Automobile Service of the French Army, to establish a camion service where volunteers would haul munitions, troops, and supplies instead of treating the wounded.  While somewhat controversial, sixteen Transport Matériel [Etats-] Unis (TMU) sections, also known as the Réserve Mallet, were created.  The American Ambulance Field Service also shortened its name to the American Field Service at this time.

By the time the U.S. entered the war in late 1917, the 2,500 ambulance and camion drivers in the American Field Service had participated in every major French battle and carried more than 500,000 wounded.  The U.S. Army Ambulance Service absorbed AFS, which ceased to exist as an independent ambulance and camion organization.  Some AFS Sections Sanitaire [Etats-] Unis (SSU) became U.S. Army SSU units, while other AFS volunteers enlisted in different branches of the U.S. service.  The Paris headquarters of AFS remained open after the U.S. entered the war, as the organization transitioned into becoming part of the U.S. Army.  Beginning in July 1917, the AFS headquarters published a weekly bulletin containing news of drivers and the war, which was distributed to former AFS drivers.  The Paris headquarters at 21 rue Raynouard closed in June 1919.