The Sprawling Sculpture at the Center of the National World War I Memorial Has Been Unveiled in Washington, D.C.

The new National World War I Memorial is officially complete. At an illumination ceremony last week, organizers unveiled the memorial’s centerpiece, a 58-foot-long bronze sculpture called A Soldier’s Journey created by artist Sabin Howard.

Crews began lowering pieces of the 25-ton artwork into place in August. As the sunlight faded on the evening of September 13, hundreds of spectators gathered to see the memorial lit up for the first time.

“This sculpture is in service of our nation,” Howard said at the ceremony. “It is in service of the veterans today and the veterans that are no longer with us. So tonight we are telling their story. And tonight they will be revered, because this sculpture is for them.”

National WWI Memorial – A Soldier’s Journey: First Illumination:

At the ceremony, Howard walked the audience through the sculpture’s many sections, which were illuminated one by one. Meant to be viewed from left to right, the artwork tells the story of America’s involvement in the war through 38 human figures in various scenes. In one, a “doughboy”—the nickname for American World War I soldiers—takes his helmet from his daughter. In another, a pair of soldiers tend to a fallen comrade.

The experience of walking along the wall is meant to be like watching “a movie in bronze,” Howard told Smithsonian magazine’s Jeff MacGregor in 2022.

“What I want is to make something relevant to our age, to find the thread that runs through humanity—that human beings can reach great heights, and they can sink to the level of the animal,” he added.

Sabin spent nearly a decade working on the piece. His research process involved studying paintings and photographs of the war, as well as taking high-tech images and measurements of models wearing historical uniforms. After having a full-size steel-framed foam armature made, Howard sculptured the figures in clay. Then, he sent the clay-covered armature to England to be cast in bronze.

The sculpture is part of the new $44 million memorial in Pershing Park, located just a few blocks from the White House. Architect Joe Weishaar designed the 1.76-acre site after winning an international competition. According to the World War I Centennial Commission, A Soldier’s Journey is now the largest free-standing high-relief bronze in the Western Hemisphere.

There are smaller memorials connected to World War I in Washington, such as the District of Columbia War Memorial, which honors the more than 26,000 soldiers from the city who served. Until now, however, the country lacked a comprehensive national memorial for the Great War.

“Even if all you do is look at the statues, or read a couple of Wikipedia articles [about the war], these statues and the commission [have] done something,” Jennifer N. Pritzker, an American philanthropist and retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who donated to the project, tells the Washington Post’s Katie Shepherd.

The last surviving American World War I veteran died in 2011, but organizers hope the memorial will help visitors remain connected to the nation’s past. Roughly 4.7 million American men and women served in the conflict. Nearly 117,000 American troops were killed, and another 204,000 returned home with injuries.

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