Woodrow Wilson: 21,000 Officers and Men, Camp Sherman, Chillicothe, Ohio

© Mole & Thomas

Woodrow Wilson: 21,000 Officers and Men, Camp Sherman, Chillicothe, Ohio

Currently not on view

Woodrow Wilson: 21,000 Officers and Men, Camp Sherman, Chillicothe, Ohio,

1918

Mole & Thomas, Active 1915–1921, United States
2008-68

Beginning in 1915, Arthur Samuel Mole and John D. Thomas produced "living photographs" by supervising the arrangement of tens of thousands of military personnel into national symbols, including the Statue of Liberty, the bald eagle, and the Liberty Bell. In this example, twenty-one thousand soldiers were meticulously ordered to form the profile of the sitting president, Woodrow Wilson. Wilson’s legacy has been an important topic of recent campus discourse, given the troubling positions he took on race as the president of Princeton University (1902–10) and in elected office. While meant as an expression of national pride, Mole & Thomas’s photograph unintentionally presents an opportunity to consider the multitudes whose experiences make up Wilson’s ambivalent legacy.

Information

Title
Woodrow Wilson: 21,000 Officers and Men, Camp Sherman, Chillicothe, Ohio
Dates

1918

Maker
Mole & Thomas
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
image: 33.1 x 26 cm. (13 1/16 x 10 1/4 in.) sheet: 35.2 x 27.9 cm. (13 7/8 x 11 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, gift of William J. Salman, Class of 1955
Object Number
2008-68
Place Depicted

North America, United States, Ohio, Chillicothe

Marks/Labels/Seals
In negative, lower left corner: Sincerely Yours, / Woodrow Wilson / 21,000 OFFICERS AND MEN / CAMP SHERMAN, CHILLICOTHE OHIO / BRIG. GEN. MATHEW C. SMITH COMMANDING / INTERNATIONAL / COPYRIGHT / 1918 / MOLE & THOMAS / 915 MEDINAH BLDG. / CHICAGO, ILL.
Culture
American
Type
photographs, gelatin silver prints, black-and-white photographs
Techniques
gelatin silver process
Subject
aerial photography, patriotism, soldiers, tableaux (performances), military camps, portraits

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