Commemoration of the Great War began as the battles were raging. Soldiers and civilian collected the "ephemera of war", much the way we collect souvenirs as we travel. The mementos were saved as a way to remember. Also, plans for museums as centers of memory took place even before the Armitice. By 1917 the Imperial War Museum in England and the Australian War Memorial had been formed by their governments. In France items for a state museum were collected privately. In Germany, collections were begun by a private industrialist and the Directory of the Historical Museum in Frankfort (Winter "Sites" print 80-81).
Plans for memorials proliferated. According to Winter these early memorials "glorified the war effort" reflecting censorship and images created in the press (Winter "Sites" print 81). The memorials that will later share the ground of the two museums in this study are of this era and have strikingly similar juxtaposition of purpose with the museums that now occupy the same grounds.
The Liberty Memorial, which stands atop the National WWI Museum is a "symbol of the courage, patriotism, sacrifice and honor of all who served in WWI". The inscription is "In honor of those who served in the World War in defense of liberty and our country" (National WWI website).
The tribute engraved on the American Monument, which rises above the Meaux museum is to "heroic sons of France who dared all and gave all in the day of deadly peril" (Rothstein).
The museums, in contrast, do not send a message of redemption or heroism. There is no message of political triumph, of nobility of arms. Both museums acknowledge the terrible tragedy. As Edward Rothstein says in his review of the Meaux museum, both do look to the person experience of all the participants, military and civilian.
The Liberty Memorial
When planning for the memorial began in 1919, the business leaders enlisted by the Kansas City City Council were able to raise $2.5 million in just 10 days. The site, across from Union Station, with a sweeping view of the city, was dedicated in 1921. That event was attended by then Vice-President Calvin Coolidge and five of the Great War military commanders: Lieutenant General Baron Jacques of Belgium, Admiral Earl Beatty of Great Britain, General Armando Diaz of Italy, Marshal Ferdinand Foch of France and General John Pershing of the United States (and Laclede, Missouri). Flags were presented to the commanders by local veteran Harry Truman (National World War I Museum website).
Plans for memorials proliferated. According to Winter these early memorials "glorified the war effort" reflecting censorship and images created in the press (Winter "Sites" print 81). The memorials that will later share the ground of the two museums in this study are of this era and have strikingly similar juxtaposition of purpose with the museums that now occupy the same grounds.
The Liberty Memorial, which stands atop the National WWI Museum is a "symbol of the courage, patriotism, sacrifice and honor of all who served in WWI". The inscription is "In honor of those who served in the World War in defense of liberty and our country" (National WWI website).
The tribute engraved on the American Monument, which rises above the Meaux museum is to "heroic sons of France who dared all and gave all in the day of deadly peril" (Rothstein).
The museums, in contrast, do not send a message of redemption or heroism. There is no message of political triumph, of nobility of arms. Both museums acknowledge the terrible tragedy. As Edward Rothstein says in his review of the Meaux museum, both do look to the person experience of all the participants, military and civilian.
The Liberty Memorial
The museums, in contrast, do not send a message of redemption or heroism. There is no message of political triumph, of nobility of arms. Both museums acknowledge the terrible tragedy. As Edward Rothstein says in his review of the Meaux museum, both do look to the person experience of all the participants, military and civilian.
The Liberty Memorial
Returning as President, Coolidge dedicated the monument on November 11, 1926. Architect H. Van Buren Magonigle along with landscape architects George E. Kessler and Frederick Law Olmstead, Jr. designed the Torch of Liberty limestone tower centered between the Assyrian Sphinxes Memory and Future. The artist Edmond Amateis was responsible for the Great Frieze, a homage to the sacrifice and service of the people. (National Historic Landmarks and World War I museum websites).
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| Great Frieze by Edmond Amateis along the North Wall of the Liberty Memorial Plaza - Wikipedia image |
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The Liberty Memorial overlooking the Kansas City skylineThe American Monument |
Frederick MacMonnies, at one time an assistant to Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and known for his public statuary, was chosen to design and sculpt the tribute. MacMonnies made his home in Giverny, France prior to, and early in the war. Uncomfortably close as the battle of the Marne was being waged, he agreed with Schama and Winter that observing war was not living through war. The experience was beyond conception (American Monument).
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| The American Monument actually named La Liberté Éxplorée (Liberty Weeping) |
The religious iconography of the American Monument with the female figure and the fallen soldier, the pietá, contrasts with the secular Liberty Memorial. Both commemorate the sacrifice of millions of casualties and provide places for the community to mourn. According to Winter, "war as both noble and uplifting and tragic and unendurably sad" is the message of "virtually all postwar war memorials" (Winter Sites print).
In contrast, neither museum portrays the war as "noble and uplifting". The museums commemorate the experience and endeavor to tell the story of all the affected by the Great War.
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