In honor of the centennial of World War I, the Spencer Research Library Blog is going to follow the experiences of one American soldier: twenty-year-old Forrest W. Bassett, whose letters are held in Spencer’s Kansas Collection. Each Monday the library will post a new entry, which will feature Bassett’s letters to fifteen-year-old Ava Marie Shaw from that following week, one hundred years after he wrote them.
Kansas WW1
Commemorating the First World War Centennial in Kansas
Category: Preservation
The Robert and Elizabeth Dole Archive and Special Collections is accepting applications for an Archival Fellowship, in conjunction with the closing year of University of Kansas’ World War I Commemoration.
The Archival Fellow will work with Dole Archives staff to evaluate relevant archival holdings and develop a topic guide and online teaching module based on Senator Bob Dole’s career advocacy on behalf of Armenia. The final product will be used as an introduction to this topic for K-12, university, and general public audiences.
I’m not sure we have examples in Kansas cities about trolleys of World War I vintage, but the point here may be that you never know what might be representative of the home front in 1917:
The Victory Eagle outside the main entrance of Dyche Hall at the University of Kansas
The Victory Highway was supposed to be a tribute to the American soldiers who lost their lives in World War I. It was a transcontinental road, stretching from New York to San Francisco. Across Kansas it would follow an already established route, the Golden Belt Highway. An association was formed in 1921 to create and promote the concept of the Victory Highway.
In that strange, distant land known as New Jersey, a bell tower is being restored in the community of Upper Montclair. It was erected in 1919, not only as a tribute to seven men from the area who died in the Great War, but as a “thanks offering for the return of those who served.” Seven of the bells bear the names of those who did not return.
This is the sort of story that we’re pleased to hear about. We hope we’ll hear of more just like it.
Lincoln Elementary School students have for two years been raising funds to restore a 1928 monument placed by the American War Mothers to Geary County World War I veterans. For the full story, let’s quote Dewey Terrill of www.jcpost.com on September 20th:
When seeking out monuments and memorials to World War I, one might not immediately think of stained glass windows. But they are out there, and they may be among the more endangered memorials. Many could be in churches, as a tribute to either those members of the congregation who served, or to individuals who served and / or made the supreme sacrifice.
A program has been started to give grants of up to $2,000 for the preservation and restoration of World War I Monuments and Memorials. “100 Cities – 100 Memorials” will offer those grants to the first 100 who apply for them.
For more details, use this link: http://www.worldwar1centennial.org/100-cities-100-memorials-home.html
The Oise-Aisne American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) Cemetery and Memorial is located near Seringes-et-Nesles, France. The cemetery contains 6,012 individual burials, 597 of which are of unknowns. It was designated as a concentration cemetery in 1921 and the French government allows the use of the land by the ABMC for a military cemetery or memorial free of charge. As with all of the ABMC sites, it was professionally designed, with meticulous attention to detail, in this instance performed by the eminent ecclesiastical architects Cram and Ferguson, designers of The Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan.
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