Whenever we experience a traumatic or tragic event that incurs a great cost in resources or lives

2/18/02

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Whenever we experience a traumatic or tragic event that incurs a great cost in resources or lives

These collective memories are usually given specific form in rituals, ceremonies, and memorials, and in these practices and places they become embedded in the culture of the group.

When first conceived and initiated, these ceremonies and memorials are condensed expressions of both grief and belief.

Monuments and Memorialsof theGreat War and afterward….

…and in the Ebenezar Congregational Chapel in the small English village of Audry

for those who fell at The Battle of the Somme.

The largest British & Commonwealthcemetery on the Western Front with over 11,500individual graves and 34,888 names for those with no known grave.

Thiepval Memorial, the largest British war memorial in the world, contains the names of 73,357 British and South African men who have no known grave and who fell on the Somme between July 1916 and 20 March 1918.

...and where the names of 54,900 soldiers missing and never found are inscribed on the walls.

The Brooding Soldier

Created by a great mine on July 1, 1916 near the village of La Boiselle.Privately purchased and maintained by an Englishman.

Notre Dame de LorettaThe French National War Monument

Michelin published a series of Illustrated Guides to all the major battlefields of the Great War…

Coventry’s Cathedrals

The Normandy American Cemetery and MemorialOn 170.5 acres donated by the people of France, rest 9,386 military dead of the United States of America.

The Iwo Jima Memorial Washington, D.C.

The Korean Conflict Memorial in Washington, D.C.

The Vietnam Memorialin Washington, D.C.

The Gulf War Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Murrah Federal Office Building

The Oklahoma Symbolic Memorial

The Field of Empty Chairs

The American flag from “Ground Zero” of the World Trade Center at the Opening Ceremonies of the 2002 Olympics

Monuments & Memorialsprovide occasions for

In creating a Monument or Memorialthere are questions to be answered….

Who should participate in these decisions?andHow should they be included?

Have you forgotten yet? . . .Look up, and swear by the green of the spring that you’ll never forget.

Author: Michael A. Toth

Email: tothm@pdx.edu

Home Page: web.pdx.edu/~tothm/greatwar/