Clippings of the Sykesville Herald Newspaper and in the Museum Collection

World War I

These excerpts are clipped directly from the Sykesville Herald (from 1923-1940s, known as the Herald Messenger, under the same publishers) newspaper, published in Sykesville, Maryland from 1913 until the 1980s.

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Small Box Gas Mask

This type of gas mask was used from 1917-1918 and was designed to protect the wearer from chlorine, phosgene, and mustard gas. Although the invention of gas masks in 1916 reduced fatalities, models like this one were prone to tears in the breathing tube, eye glass fogging, and faulty filtration. The filter in this box is made of peach pits, which were collected in American school cafeterias and sent to the US government for this use.

Gift of Howard Smith, 2020.