Start Date

29-9-2018 1:15 PM

End Date

29-9-2018 2:15 PM

Description

Most people pass war memorials in their own town or while on the road with relatively little thought, though likely with reverence for those that include soldiers names of those who died or perhaps excitement and pride for those that include military hardware, such as cannon, aircraft, or tanks. Some may see trophies in particular and smile with patriotic/nationalistic pride or frown with disapproval (also patriotic in its won way). War memorials and trophies can be found in town squares and city halls, cemeteries, airports, at and VFW or Legion halls. Each combination of statue or trophy, with or without the names of the dead, can bring about different responses. This paper seeks to address how the trophies of war from World War I arrived in America, where they were placed, and how they were received.

There are a number of aspects to war trophies that need to be considered. Were they Allied or enemy trophies? How and from where were they obtained? And to what end and where were they displayed? And adopting a longer lens, it is worth recognizing that most have now gone, many to scrap drives for the second World War, as subsequent wars can erase the meaning of previous ones. All of these questions should inform our/one's perception of such trophies, though some facets may be obscured with time ("Which war was that, now?"), and others are knowledge only known to specialists ("That's which model of hardware?").

The paper begins with the arrival of a capture German aeld gun on the Michigan Tech campus in 1919, moves back slightly to consider the Committee for Public Information's traveling Allied War Exposition in 1918, and then the establishment of the American Battle Monuments Commission in 1923, and then will seek to contextualize this American experience by comparison to the British Commonwealth experience. Although this paper specifically deals with the American experience of war trophies in 1918-1923, it draws upon comparative examples from across the British Commonwealth and asks the listener to adopt a dispassionate consideration of war trophies without respect to who won or lost.

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Sep 29th, 1:15 PM Sep 29th, 2:15 PM

3B2: The Allied Expositionary Forces: From Encouragement to Commemoration of WWI

Most people pass war memorials in their own town or while on the road with relatively little thought, though likely with reverence for those that include soldiers names of those who died or perhaps excitement and pride for those that include military hardware, such as cannon, aircraft, or tanks. Some may see trophies in particular and smile with patriotic/nationalistic pride or frown with disapproval (also patriotic in its won way). War memorials and trophies can be found in town squares and city halls, cemeteries, airports, at and VFW or Legion halls. Each combination of statue or trophy, with or without the names of the dead, can bring about different responses. This paper seeks to address how the trophies of war from World War I arrived in America, where they were placed, and how they were received.

There are a number of aspects to war trophies that need to be considered. Were they Allied or enemy trophies? How and from where were they obtained? And to what end and where were they displayed? And adopting a longer lens, it is worth recognizing that most have now gone, many to scrap drives for the second World War, as subsequent wars can erase the meaning of previous ones. All of these questions should inform our/one's perception of such trophies, though some facets may be obscured with time ("Which war was that, now?"), and others are knowledge only known to specialists ("That's which model of hardware?").

The paper begins with the arrival of a capture German aeld gun on the Michigan Tech campus in 1919, moves back slightly to consider the Committee for Public Information's traveling Allied War Exposition in 1918, and then the establishment of the American Battle Monuments Commission in 1923, and then will seek to contextualize this American experience by comparison to the British Commonwealth experience. Although this paper specifically deals with the American experience of war trophies in 1918-1923, it draws upon comparative examples from across the British Commonwealth and asks the listener to adopt a dispassionate consideration of war trophies without respect to who won or lost.

 

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