While we’re plugging the National World War I Museum and Memorial, let us make note of their annual symposium that is approaching on November 4-5. In the past they have lined up impressive speakers while reviewing the war year-by-year; it’s been a good way to learn about the war, and perhaps realize two things people don’t think of when considering the Great War–it was not merely fought on the Western Front in Europe, but was truly a world war, and as they say, the war changed everything. See the details for the symposium here:
Month: October 2016 (Page 3 of 5)
Hopefully you have plans to mark Veterans Day–originally and still technically Armistice Day, the day the fighting in World War I ceased. If not, and you are close to Kansas City, you may wish to go to the National World War I Museum and Memorial, a most appropriate place to be on November 11. Here is a link to the activities they are planning that weekend:
The United States World War I Centennial Commission issued the following request:
Countdown to Veterans Day
We Need Your Help!
Good morning!
We need YOUR HELP! Every year, the US WWI Centennial Commission runs its Countdown To Veterans Day Campaign in the lead up to Veterans Day.
In order to help strengthen this campaign and to get the word about the centennial out to a wider world, the Commission is asking all of our friends to write and submit a Letter to the Editor to their local newspaper about Veterans Day and its significance to WWI and the centennial (Veterans Day was ARMISTICE DAY!).
Today’s Kansas City Star has an article about Wayne Miner, an African American soldier from Kansas City, Missouri. He was killed in action three hours before the Armistice at 11:00 a.m., November 11, 1918. Instead of rehashing the article, see it here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article107823992.html
William Gabrielson grew up on a farm just east of Lindsborg. He joined the US Army on Sep. 5, 1918, and served with the Signal Corps until early 1919. Gabrielson never traveled overseas, making it only as far as Camp Meade in Maryland before the war ended.
An earlier post of mine showed an advertisement in the local Lindsborg newspaper for Lundquist Studio, which offered to take photographs of soldiers before they left home. At least one man took up the offer. The photograph below of Gabrielson was taken at the Albert N. Lundquist Studio located at 119 N. Main in Lindsborg.
Memorials to the Missing: Hill 60
There were two positions named Hill 60 by the British in WW1 (the ‘60’ stands for 60 meters in elevation). The more famous Hill 60 is in the Ypres Salient in Belgium, it was fought over and tunneled under for 2 ½ years up until May, 1917. The subject of the 2010 Australian movie Beneath Hill 60, today there are monuments to units that fought there, an intact German blockhouse at the top and a special mine crater off to the right (known as ‘The Caterpillar’), but there is no Memorial to the Missing (or even a cemetery) on the site.
If your organization has a World War I project in mind, you should always consider grant possibilities. The Kansas Humanities Council is one potential source for funding. Like most grant opportunities, you will be in competition for funding, but that shouldn’t frighten you away. Check the KHC website for information, and if you aren’t sure, then e-mail or phone with questions. Their website: http://kansashumanities.org/
The Topeka Cemetery has recently been putting up temporary signs at the graves of World War I dead for Memorial Day and Veterans Day. It appears they are now putting up more permanent signs in time for Veterans Day. See the video from the Topeka Capital-Journal:
I have always been impressed with the power of a well thought out editorial cartoon. They can make a point, sometimes with a cutting edge that can go for the jugular. They hold power even when you don’t agree with the subject, and you know the cartoonist to be a . . . well, never mind what the cartoonist is.
I’m looking at World War I articles I’ve bookmarked over the last few years, only to find that some are no longer available. One that still is available is one that talks of this being the time to introduce people to Britain’s war poets. So while we’re waiting for the next installment of Tim Dayton’s post on American war poets, here’s a teaser.