In 1917, World War I was dragging into its fourth bloody year.

On the Western Front, mechanized warfare and a tactical stalemate had claimed millions of lives.

In January, a German telegram urging Mexico to go to war against the United States was intercepted, leading to the Americans’ entry into the conflict.

In April, a calamitous offensive at Chemin des Dames gained the French only 500 yards of territory at the cost of 250,000 casualties, leading to widespread mutiny and desertion.

1917 was also the tenth year that the Lumière brothers’ Autochrome color photography process was commercially available. One of the earliest color technologies, the Autochrome process, used microscopic grains of dyed potato starches to capture hues in a dreamy, pointillist mosaic.

Though unsuited for fast-moving action and combat, Autochrome was used by photographers to document the quieter moments away from the front, capturing the rest and reflection of soldiers engaged in a seemingly endless and senseless war.