The Final Piece of the National World War I Memorial Is Almost Finished
“A Soldier’s Journey,” the 58-foot-long bronze sculpture created by Sabin Howard, will be unveiled in Washington, D.C. on September 13
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A memorial honoring the millions of Americans who served in World War I is taking shape in Washington, D.C. Last month, crews began assembling the 58-foot-long bronze sculpture that will serve as the centerpiece of the new National World War I Memorial near the National Mall.
For now, A Soldier’s Journey is shrouded in black plastic and protected by fences, according to the Washington Post’s Michael E. Ruane and Katie Shepherd. But after an unveiling ceremony on September 13, visitors will be able to admire the ten-foot-tall tableau created by sculptor Sabin Howard.
The new $44 million memorial is located in Pershing Park across from the White House Visitor Center. The 1.76-acre site was designed by architect Joe Weishaar, who won an international competition to create the memorial.
The sculpture, which is meant to be viewed from left to right, depicts 38 figures protruding from the background. These figures are featured in vivid scenes that tell the story of America’s involvement in the war, such as a daughter handing her father a helmet and nurses helping wounded soldiers.
“I’m hoping to make something that lets a kid, when he’s walking along the wall, experience it like it’s a movie in bronze,” Howard told Smithsonian magazine’s Jeff MacGregor in 2022. “The scenes are changing. And the kid goes home and he’s like, ‘Oh my God, I got to see what World War I was all about.’ And he gets the idea that we’re on a journey—each and every one of us.”
Initial plans called for a much larger sculpture—one that stretched 324 feet long—but the idea evolved over the past decade. It’s still expected to be the largest free-standing bronze relief in the Western Hemisphere.
To make the piece, Howard studied images and paintings depicting the war. Then, he recruited models to help make the sculpture as life-like as possible. Some donned soldiers’ uniforms and military equipment, while others wore historical nurses’ uniforms.
Howard and the models traveled to Britain to work in a high-tech studio outfitted with a photogrammetry rig, which consisted of 160 cameras arranged in a circle. From the photos and measurements, he created final sketches, a 3-D digital rendering, a maquette and, finally, a full-size steel-framed foam armature. The armature, made in England, was shipped to Howard’s studio in New Jersey, where he applied the clay.
When he finished sculpting in clay, he sent the piece to England to be cast in bronze at the Pangolin Editions foundry, which was a “monumental effort,” as foundry director Rungwe Kingdon tells BBC News’ Clara Bullock and Audrey Dias. “You can’t do it at half the intensity that the artist does it—you have to match.”
From there, the pieces were shipped to Baltimore, loaded onto a truck and driven to Washington, D.C. Crews began lowering them into place on July 27.
Some 4.7 million American men and women served in World War I, and nearly 117,000 American soldiers were killed during the conflict. The last surviving American veteran died in 2011 at the age of 110. At that time, the Great War was still the only major modern American conflict without a comprehensive national memorial in Washington, D.C.
In 2015, the World War I Centennial Commission decided to change that. The commission announced plans for a new national memorial and solicited proposals from designers, sculptors and other creatives around the world.
“It felt like if this generation didn’t build it, it wouldn’t be built,” Terry W. Hamby, the chairman of the commission, tells the Washington Post.
The memorial was supposed to be finished in time for the war’s centennial in 2018. That ultimately didn’t happen. But now, six years later, the pieces are finally falling into place.
“The biggest thing I've always wanted to do is make art for We the People,” Howard told NorthJersey.com’s Jim Beckerman in January. “An art that everyone would understand no matter what their education. And that's actually happening."
Editor’s note, September 16, 2024: This story has been updated to clarify the sculpture’s location in Washington, D.C.
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