New perspectives on the Spanish-American War.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Spanish-American War, a conflict that arose out of disputes over Spanish colonial possessions and Cuba's struggle for independence from Spain. It was a short war, with America defeating Spain in just under four months, but the consequences were enduring. The conflict resulted in the end of Spain's overseas empire and the rise of the U.S. as a world power.

"A War in Perspective, 1898-1998: Public Appeals, Memory, and the Spanish-American Conflict," an exhibition at, The New York Public Library, features a large array of materials from the period, including newspapers, pamphlets, letters, books, maps, sheet music, cartoons, drawings, photographs, lantern slides, audio recordings of songs, and early film footage. These have been assembled primarily from the library's research collections, with special items on loan from the Biblioteca Nacional of Madrid, Spain, and The New-York Historical Society, among other institutions and...