NEWS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE              DATE: 3/31/08 CONTACT: LESLIE SCHALER, COMMUNICATION ASST., (413) 545-0162   UMASS AMHERST LIBRARIES HOSTS “The First World War” Exhibit prepared by Professor Ed Klekowski Amherst, MA – Professor Ed Klekowski’s exhibit of WWI artifacts recently found in France is now on display in the Learning Commons of the Du Bois Library at UMass Amherst.  The artifacts range from a canteen to bullets, shells, and a sword bayonet, among other artifacts.  This exhibit is their first public display.  Professor Klekowski uses the artifacts to help tell the stories of two films he has in production - Yankees Fight the Kaiser and Model T's to Glory: 1914-1917.  Both films have strong New England stories, based primarily on Massachusetts connections.  The exhibit will be available in the Du Bois Library at UMass Amherst through April 30. The exhibit includes artifacts found in the St. Mihiel Salient and the Argonne in France, where the forests are still littered with relics from the war years.  It is illegal to dig for artifacts in France, but they can be collected if on the surface, as these were. Ed Klekowski is a keynote speaker for the UMass Amherst Library’s 6th annual “Dinner with Friends,” a fundraising gala on Saturday, April 5, in the Library.  The exhibit will be a feature of the Dinner.  Professor Klekowski’s previous documentary films include: Under Quabbin: The Search for the Lost Towns; The Great Flood of 1936: The Connecticut River Story; and Dynamite, Whiskey and Wood—The Connecticut River Log Drives 1870-1915. For more information about Ed Klekowski and the “Dinner with Friends” see http://www.library.umass.edu/dinner/ or contact Emily Silverman (413) 545-0995, essilverman@library.umass.edu.