Object description

The Meuse-Argonne American Memorial is an American World War I memorial commemorating "the brilliant victory of the American First Army in the Meuse-Argonne offensive, September 26 – November 11, 1918, and pays tribute to the previous heroic services of the Armies of France on the important battle front upon which the memorial has been constructed." It was erected by the United States Government and is the largest of the American war memorials in Europe. Outside Montfaucon in the Meuse department in Grand Est in north-eastern France, it was unveiled on August 1, 1937. The memorial was designed by John Russell Pope. He designed a massive, Doric column in granite. It is surmounted by a statue symbolic of liberty and towers more than 200 feet above the hill and the war ruins of the village around it.