This selection from Iodine and Gasoline tells the story of the 117th Sanitary Train's journey from their mustering ground in the United States to the Western Front of World War I. The book was collaboratively written by 18 men, representing all Medical Department ranks, assembled form the train's eight companies. Though preceded by casualty lists, the narrative itself takes the form of a third-person omniscient narrative, tracing the people, places, and organizations involved in the deployment of the 117th Sanitary Train and the rest of the 42nd "Rainbow" Divison.
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The original text of Iodine and Gasoline reads much like a history textbook. It follows the 117th Sanitary Train as it made its way from The United States to different war fronts across Europe during the second World War. In editing this text digitally, we thought it would add to the reading experience to not just be able to read from start to end, but allow readers a more interactive understanding: reading the history through the context of people, places, as well as organizations. So throughout the digital text, we created links that connect the people, places, and organizations mentioned, to other pages dedicated to the selected subjects. In the future, the linked pages would contain more information on the subjects as well as pictures and/or maps, but for the purpose of this project the linked pages are minimal due to time and resource restraints. Because WW II is such a widely studied event, there was also ample research available online that enhances the reading experience both visually and factually. For the purpose of this project, we explored linking certain subject matter in the text to research we were able to find on said subject online. In the future many more of these links would exist, providing readers with generous resources to explore and understand the full history of 42nd Division and 117th Sanitary Train. Apart from that, this digital edition includes spelling and grammar corrections with the opportunity to view the original statements. Across from the digital text, readers can view the pages of the document for themselves. As editors, we hope this ensures that the integrity of the document is kept in place but the content is enhanced by the digital material we were able to add.
—Erin Chambers, Taryn Collura, and Lucas Holloway, editors; ENGL 478: Digital Archives and Editions, Professor Amanda Gailey, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Spring 2016.