Virtual Reality, Circa 1919

As part of the University’s WORLD WAR I MILITARY TRAINING COURSE, students used large landscape targets to develop their marksmanship skills. J.R. Cornelius, a Princeton military instructor who was a Canadian Army captain, wrote that the landscapes would enable a recruit “to recognize and aim at targets … and enable him from a verbal direction and description to locate rapidly and shoot accurately.” Cornelius worked with Howard Russell Butler 1876, known for his paintings of people, land and seascapes, and celestial objects, to create eight landscape targets — the largest 39 feet wide. In the photo above, a cadet instructor demonstrates how to locate a target; below, Cornelius leads students through a series of “fire orders.”

Scribner’s Magazine, July-December 1918