Once I started looking for information on civilian gas masks, I soon found them in nearly every facet of society. Focusing on the gas mask opened up many ways to do this. When I learned that one of the reactions to this new threat to domestic life was the mass production and distribution of gas masks to civilians of every age, I wanted to find out what we could learn from this moment when non-combatants became so fully integrated into the waging of modern war.
This earlier period, which has preoccupied me for decades, was the time when war became modern, notably because civilians far removed from traditional battle zones had to confront the harrowing arrival of new weapons of war: air power and chemical arms. Such images of ordinary people with faces rendered invisible behind masks harken back to the era between 1915-1945. Photographs show face-masked audiences at performances, sporting events, graduations, weddings, funerals, in transit centers and stores, courtrooms and schools. But around the world, people suddenly had to think about what to put on their face for their own protection and that of others. Some countries gave their citizens and residents masks, some left the acquisition of such protection up to individuals.
Masks went from being hard to find in the spring of 2020 to nearly ubiquitous two years later. The face coverings that many of us have worn since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic range from medical-grade PPE to handsewn cloth to expensive designer-branded fabric.
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