Exhibition shares stories of American soldiers who fought and died in Flanders
A new exhibition opened at the In Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres on Tuesday, looking at the presence of Americans in Belgium during World War I, before and after the official participation of the US.
During the summer and autumn of 1918, four American divisions fought at the front in Flanders. Among them were Belgians who had emigrated to the US before the war and ended up returning to fight in Europe in American uniform. The museum tells their stories.
The exhibition is part of the Americans in Flanders Fields, Names and Places 1917-1919 project, a partnership between the museum, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC and the US embassy in Belgium. Part of the project involves identifying all the Americans who died on Belgian soil during World War I and integrating them into remembrance practices.
Visitors will learn new insights about the Americans who died in the war, their origins and their places of remembrance. The exhibition, which runs until the end of May, is accompanied by a publication that incorporates all the results of the museum’s research.
An app will also be launched this spring, to show where the Americans left traces in the landscape.
#FlandersNewsService | Illustration picture shows the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the entry of the US into World War I at the Flanders Field American Cemetery, April 2017, in Waregem © BELGA PHOTO NICOLAS MAETERLINCK
Related news
