On September 9th the District of Columbia Commission for Fine Arts signed off on the Pershing Park project. The next step is to get approval from the National Capitol Planning Commission. It is still hoped that the project can be completed by November 11th, 2020. If you’re interested in reading through the final version of the design click here.
Kansas WW1
Commemorating the First World War Centennial in Kansas
It’s coming close to the time for the National World War I Museum and Memorial’s annual symposium! Scheduled for November 1-2, it promises to be another excellent program. This year’s topic: 1919: Peace?
For more information, use this link: https://www.theworldwar.org/learn/2019-symposium
After an absence of a few weeks, we have some programs from the World War I era appearing on C-SPAN3 this weekend. As usual, all times shown here are Central.
—Reel America: “Motor Convoy” 1919 Silent Army Film. The post-war cross-country convoy which included Lt. Colonel Dwight Eisenhower, the trip that inspired the creation of the Interstate Highway System in the 1950s. Airs Saturday, September 21 at 9:00 p.m. Repeats Sunday, September 22 at 3:00 p.m., and Monday, September 23 at 1:00 a.m. and 6:15 a.m.
Pip, Squeak and Wilfred were cartoon characters in a wildly successful comic strip of the same name that ran in the British tabloid The Daily Mirror from 1919 to 1940 and again from 1947 to 1955. Originally the work of story writer Bertram J. Lamb (1887-1938) and illustrator Austin B. Payne (1876-1959), this imaginative work featured the dog Pip, the South African penguin Squeak and the juvenile long-eared rabbit Wilfred.
This was the last line of the chorus of the 1914 British hit song Keep the Home Fires Burning, with the music written by Welsh-born Ivor Novello (1893 – 1951) and the tear-jerking lyrics by American Lena Guilbert Ford (1870 – 1918). World War 1 connections: In 1916 Novello joined the Royal Naval Air Service, where he washed out of pilot training after crashing two aircraft, and during the night of March 7th, 1918, Mrs. Ford and her son Walter were the first American civilians to be killed in a German air raid.
The American Legion was formed March 15th, 1919 at a meeting held in Paris, with the stated mission of providing advocacy and services to the veterans of World War 1, similar to the Civil War organizations the Grand Army of the Republic and the United Confederate Veterans. The Legion was chartered by Congress on Sept. 16th, 1919, (U.S. Code, Title 36, Chapters 41-50).
On December 10th, 1920, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson was awarded the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize, in recognition of his effort to create The League of Nations. This was a rare late award, permitted under the rules but not previously done. The reason for the delay was that some of the committee were reluctant because the U.S. Senate had failed to ratify the Treaty of Versailles in November, 1919.
This major motion picture will be released soon. Directed by Sam Mendes and produced by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners, it features George McKay, Dean-Charles Chapman, Benedict Cumberbatch, Colin Firth, Mark Strong and Richard Madden. You can read more about this and view the trailer here.
Recently Hiawatha, Kansas, honored World War I hometown soldier Homer White, for whom the American Legion post is named. The National World War I Centennial Committee posted the story on their website. Here’s the link:
Episode #135 of the WWI Centennial News Podcast includes a story about Erwin Bleckley, the WWI flyer from Wichita who lost his life and received the Medal of Honor. See the link below; the Bleckley story starts at 8:05:
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