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Photo, Print, Drawing Kemmel Monument, Kemmelstraat, Vierstaadt, West Flanders (Belgium), BEL

[ Data Pages from Survey HABS US-5  ]

About this Item

Title

  • Kemmel Monument, Kemmelstraat, Vierstaadt, West Flanders (Belgium), BEL

Names

  • Historic American Buildings Survey, creator
  • Howe, George
  • Cret, Paul Philippe
  • U.S. Commission of Fine Arts (CFA)
  • U.S. Department of War
  • U.S. American Expeditionary Forces (AEF)
  • Lahalle & Levard
  • Duyvewaardt, Valere
  • Waugh, Sidney
  • Loyau, Marcel
  • Ste. des Marbres, Pierres & Granits
  • E. Laperlier
  • Ahlstrom, Aaron, historian
  • Davidson, Lisa Pfueller, project manager
  • Davidson, Lisa Pfueller, transmitter
  • American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC), sponsor
  • McPartland, Mary, transmitter

Created / Published

  • Documentation compiled after 1933

Headings

  • -  monuments & memorials
  • -  war (World War I)
  • -  Art Moderne architectural elements
  • -  architectural sculpture
  • -  commemoration
  • -  Belgium--West Flanders (Belgium)--Vierstaadt

Latitude / Longitude

  • 50.797584,2.849132

Notes

  • -  Significance: Kemmel Monument stands on a hillside outside the village of Vierstaadt, near Ypres, Belgium. This small monument was designed by architect George Howe under the auspices of the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC). It commemorates the contributions of the 27th and 30th divisions of the American Expeditionary Forces to the Ypres-Lys Offensive from August 18 to September 4, 1918. These divisions were attached to and trained with the British Army. During the offensive, US troops gained ground against German lines and defended against significant counterattacks. Together the divisions lost approximately 2,100 men. Kemmel Monument was built in a central location amidst the battlefield, and the area's slight elevation provided postwar visitors with views of the surrounding landscape. George Howe, who had served in hospitals and as an intelligence officer during the war, combined restrained classicism and emerging modern architectural ideas to create a simple and elegant monument that paid homage to the 27th and 30th divisions' actions and sought to engage future visitors in the history of the war. From the mid-1920s to the early 1930s, the ABMC, a federal agency created in 1923, constructed eleven monuments to the AEF in France, Belgium, and Gibraltar (a British Overseas Territory). This hierarchical system of monuments consisted of three larger, more impressive commemorative monuments that celebrated major AEF victories and eight smaller historical monuments that marked more minor AEF engagements. Kemmel Monument constituted the smallest of the ABMC-sanctioned historical monuments. In the postwar years, the US government feared that privately-built monuments would misrepresent the nation's contribution to the war by creating a profusion of both poorly-maintained and extravagant memorials throughout French and Belgian battlefields. The ABMC restricted the erection of memorials by non-governmental agents, while developing and implementing its own carefully-planned memorial program. With the historical monuments, the ABMC challenged architects to create works that adequately commemorated but did not overstate US’s troops’ contributions; fit into preexisting landscapes; and represented through architecture the United States' new role as an international power on par with its European allies. Kemmel Monument consists of a rectangular block of white limestone that stands on a stone plinth. The block is bare except for a central inscription flanked by two relief carvings of American bayonets. In front of the block, immediately below the inscription, a carving of an American soldier's helmet lying on a wreath sits on a protruding base. The large block and life-sized helmet are in the center of a terrace surrounded by a metal fence with cylindrical stone posts. Simplicity and symmetry stand out in Howe's composition, which combines abstract and literal forms. Kemmel’s restrained design reflects the ABMC's hierarchical memorial program. Kemmel's scale and style emphasized the relative significance of American engagements in the region. Moreover, the Kemmel Monument occupied a position within a landscape suffused with meaning and memory. Throughout the war, European forces had fought fiercely in and around Ypres. A number of British memorials, including the famed Menin Gate, were built in the vicinity after the war. Howe's humble design respected European losses while modestly memorializing American achievements.
  • -  Survey number: HABS US-5
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1928-1929 Initial Construction

Medium

  • Data Page(s): 38

Call Number/Physical Location

  • HABS US-5

Source Collection

  • Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress)

Repository

Control Number

  • us0017

Rights Advisory

Online Format

  • pdf

Rights & Access

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Obtaining Copies

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, George Howe, Paul Philippe Cret, U.S. Commission Of Fine Arts, U.S. Department Of War, U.S. American Expeditionary Forces, Lahalle & Levard, et al. Kemmel Monument, Kemmelstraat, Vierstaadt, West Flanders Belgium, BEL. Vierstaadt West Flanders Belgium, 1933. translateds by Davidson, Lisa Pfuellermitter, and Mcpartland, Marymitter Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/us0017/.

APA citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, C., Howe, G., Cret, P. P., U.S. Commission Of Fine Arts, U.S. Department Of War, U.S. American Expeditionary Forces [...] American Battle Monuments Commission, S. (1933) Kemmel Monument, Kemmelstraat, Vierstaadt, West Flanders Belgium, BEL. Vierstaadt West Flanders Belgium, 1933. Davidson, L. P. & McPartland, M., transs Documentation Compiled After. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/us0017/.

MLA citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, et al. Kemmel Monument, Kemmelstraat, Vierstaadt, West Flanders Belgium, BEL. trans by Davidson, Lisa Pfuellermitter, and Mcpartland, Marymitter Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <aj.sunback.homes/item/us0017/>.