100 Cities 100 Memorials: Restoration, Recognition & Remembrance

This book is the first work to salute America’s official centennial World War One memorials. As selected by the Pritzker Military Museum & Library, Chicago, the Congress-appointed World War I Centennial Commission, these 100 diverse monuments represent equally varied and moving stories of dedication, sacrifice, and heroism.

With more than 230 archival images, vintage posters, and new photographs, this richly illustrated volume journeys from Hawaii to Maine, Idaho to Florida, and Arizona to Illinois to celebrate tributes formed of metal, stone, and memory. The compelling text by art historian Professor Jennifer Wingate (author of Sculpting Doughboys: Memory, Gender, and Taste in America’s World War I Memorials) provides a deeper understanding of each memorial and salutes the many organizations today that bridge past and present to maintain and honor these expressions of the nation’s heritage.

With one in every four draft aged men putting on a uniform between 1917 and 1919, American communities, large and small, began to pay tribute to those who had fought and those who never returned. They raised plaques, arenas, statues, groves, bell towers, and more, in their honor.

While many memorials were erected in the 1920s and 1930s, some date from the twenty-first century. While some honor individual soldiers, others recognize the invaluable contributions of minorities, women, and civilian defense workers.

This acknowledgment of their often-overlooked participation adds poignant dimensions to their monuments and enriches the narrative of the Great War.

With the National WWI Memorial in Washington, D.C. being selected as the 100^th official centennial World War One memorial, this book has been Published to coincide with the fall 2024 installation of “A Soldier’s Journey”, the National World War One Memorial at Pershing Park, Washington, D.C.’s centerpiece. Smithsonian Magazine recently said of the sculpture: “Across five scenes and 38 larger-than-life-size human figures, it will be nearly 60 feet long and ten feet high. And it may become the greatest memorial bronze of the modern age.”

“100 Cities 100 Memorials” is much more than a picture book. Through the powerful and personal narratives it tells, this volume stands as an eloquent testament to those who answered the call of duty and shaped one of the most consequential era in American history. You can purchase a copy of this amazing book at The Doughboy Shop here.

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