Sculptor Sabin Howard Battles Modernists to Create Classical WWI Memorial
Published: 6 April 2025
By Rob Bluey
via the Daily Signal website
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Sabin Howard's 58-foot-long bronze sculpture titled A Soldier’s Journey was unveiled during the illumination ceremony that completed the National World War I Memorial in Washington, DC on September 13, 2024.
At a time when traditional values are under assault, master sculptor Sabin Howard is bringing classical beauty back to American culture—one bronze figure at a time.
Howard, creator of “A Soldier’s Journey,” the World War I Memorial in the nation’s capital, spoke with The Daily Signal to share his remarkable journey from college dropout to national monument maker.
“I started at zero,” Howard explained. “Then, well, I made a monument that’s 60 feet long with 38 figures and weighs 25 tons. Where else in the world could you follow your dream and your passion and actually get there?”
His story begins in 1982, when the 19-year-old Howard walked away from a cabinet-making job in South Philadelphia. “I gave my boss the finger and walked out the door,” he recalled with a chuckle.
That same day, Howard called the Philadelphia College of Art, despite having never drawn before. He bought a copy of “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” and committed himself to mastering classical techniques.
In 2016, the World War I Centennial Commission selected Howard and architect Joe Weishaar of Chicago among 360 global teams to create the World War I Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Battling Bureaucracy and Modernist Opposition
But Howard’s victory was just the beginning of a years-long odyssey. He battled bureaucratic hurdles, modernist art critics, and preservationists who opposed his classical vision.
“Commission of Fine Arts is not really happy to see Renaissance figurative art,” Howard said. “They’re interested in parks. They’re not figurative people.”
Even after gaining approval, Howard faced extraordinary challenges, including shipping clay sculptures across the Atlantic during COVID-19 when travel restrictions prevented foundry workers from coming to his studio.
“I swear to you, it’s really a miracle that this happened,” he said.
Capturing the Soul of Veterans in Bronze
What emerged from this struggle is a bronze sculpture that Howard describes as “a memorial to humanity” rather than just to war. Using real veterans as models, he captured “the energy in bronze” of those who had experienced battle firsthand.
“A lot of those individuals had been in battle. They were veterans that suffered from shell shock, modern-day PTSD. They had that written on their face and their body, and it’s in that bronze,” Howard explained.
The memorial captures what Howard sees as America’s forgotten war. While 116,000 Americans died in World War I, the conflict is overshadowed by the Great Depression and World War II in our national memory.
“World War I is the line in the sand where we depart from the idea of a divine nature of the universe and enter into the modern age,” Howard observed.
→ Read the entire article on the Daily Signal website.
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