"Woodmen of the World Drill Team"
1910
Medium
gelatin silver print (real photo postcard)
Dimensions
image/sheet: 8.6 × 13.8 cm (3 3/8 × 5 7/16 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Ross J. Kelbaugh Collection, Purchased with support from the Ford Foundation
Accession Number
2023.39.116
Art Historical Context
Step into the early 20th-century world of American fraternal brotherhoods with *Woodmen of the World Drill Team* (1910), a captivating gelatin silver print by Lyons Studio. This real photo postcard—measuring just 8.6 × 13.8 cm—captures a precisely uniformed group of men from the Woodmen of the World, a prominent fraternal benefit society founded in 189. Known for providing life insurance and fostering community through rituals and parades, the organization inspired loyalty with its axe-and-tree emblem and elaborate drill teams, which performed synchronized marches to showcase discipline and ca...