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| Along the Road at Belleau Wood |
Lester G. Hornby
(1882-1956) |
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Acquisition Number: 2012.1166.6
Medium: Etching on Paper
Status: Reproduction Available - Click Here
Lester Hornby notes in a letter dated 29 July 1918 that, once he received his photographic permit granting his passage to the front, he immediately left for Chateau-Thierry. His convoy went past Belleau Wood, which had seen such ferocity in fighting by the Marine Corps the month before. Hornby wrote: “We had gone through Belleau Woods where the fighting had torn almost every tree to shreds. There were still Germans dead in the woods, and a number of hastily made graves of Americans who had turned the Boche advance into a retreat.” Hornby’s composition creates both a gaping dark cold hole as the road passes by the graves and some small shelter for the dead. The curve of the branch in the center of the etching seems to beckon you into an unknown eerie world. Hornby writes on the etching: “Bois de Belleau Wood, July 1918, along the road at Belleau Wood.”
Gift of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation
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