historyThe Public Domain Review1914–1918 · France
WWI soldiers carved names and messages into leaves to send home as delicate letters
During the First World War, some French soldiers carved words and small pictures into oak and chestnut leaves, using a needle or knife to cut away the green between the veins. The carved leaves, known as feuilles de poilus or tree leaf lace, were sent home as a light, unusual kind of letter or keepsake. Many read simple messages such as Souvenir or the name of a place, and some carried names, hearts or self-portraits. When held up to the light, the perforated leaves glow with the carving. The practice was one form of trench art, a broader tradition of making objects from war materials and waste. Museums and the Europeana 1914–1918 project have since gathered and digitised thousands of these fragile pieces.
Oak and chestnut leaves have a tough network of veins between softer tissue. A carver can cut away the soft green areas and leave the veins and letters standing. Because the leaves are thin and partly translucent, the carving lets light through, which makes the words glow when the leaf is held to a window.
The leaves show how soldiers coped with long waiting and separation, creating personal objects from the landscape around them. They are a rare, intimate record of war that is not told through weapons or generals. They also show how fragile wartime memory can survive when it is digitised and shared.
Trench art also includes shell cases turned into vases and bullets made into crucifixes. Carved tree-bark and arborglyphs have a similar pattern of people leaving personal marks on nature, from Civil War soldiers to Basque shepherds.
Image: The Public Domain Review
