“Never Such Innocence: British Images of the First World War,” an exhibit on display at the Hoover Institution until March 1, features texts and images chosen by the students of Emeritus History Prof. Peter Stansky’s “History and the Arts.”

Ten students from this year’s fall quarter class, as well as several students from previous years, wrote descriptions of the pieces displayed and worked with Hoover Institution staff to assemble the exhibit.

“My hope is that by the hands-on experience of working with the material for the exhibit that the students had a different learning experience and appreciated the significance of the material in a new way,” Stansky wrote in an email to The Daily.

The exhibit, which offers two lenses through which to view British history from 1914 through 1918, displays official government posters alongside the unofficial artwork of disheartened British soldiers.

“Never Such Innocence” was not Stansky’s first such exhibit, but it was the first one in eleven years to feature student involvement in its creation.

“I’ve done similar exhibits in the past, and an exhibit in the Hoover Art Gallery in connection with a Bay-wide event called ‘Britain meets the Bay,’” he said. “I spoke to Hoover several years before doing this exhibit, as they plan long in advance. They liked the idea of student participation.”

Highlights of the exhibit include an etchings series by British artist Percy John Smith titled “The Dance of Death,” featuring the figure of death responding to casualties on the battlefield. Also on display are copies of Wipers Times, a newspaper written mainly by the enlisted men of the Twenty-fourth Division of the British Army that satirizes soldiers’ living conditions and situation during the war.

Stansky said he hopes both students and others in the Stanford community will come see the free exhibit while it is showing this month.

“The poster and the title I think are very powerful and the display I think conveys a lot about Britain and the First World War, its hopes and tragedies and ‘innocence,’” he said.

The exhibit can be viewed in the Hoover Memorial Exhibit Pavilion, and is open to the public Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.