"On a stifling July day in 1918, 18,000 officers and soldiers posed as Lady Liberty on the parade [drill] grounds at Camp Dodge." "According to a July 3, 1986, story in the
Fort Dodge Messenger, many men fainted—they were dressed in woolen uniforms—as the temperature neared 105 degrees Farenheit [41 degrees Celsius]. The photo, taken from the top of a specially constructed tower by a Chicago photography studio, Mole & Thomas, was intended to help promote the sale of war bonds but was never used."
"Arthur S. Mole (born 1889 in England - died 1983 in the United States) was an English commercial artist who became famous for a series of "living photographs" made during World War I, in which tens of thousands of soldiers, reservists and other members of the military were arranged to form massive compositions."
As Louis Kaplan, in "A Patriotic Mole: A Living Photograph" wrote: "Mole's photos assert, bolster, and recover the image of American national identity via photographic imaging. Moreover, these military formations serve as rallying points to support U.S. involvement in the war and to ward off any isolationist tendencies."
As one person, whose great grandfather took part in the photoshoot, explains the mistery behind the "Human Statue of Liberty":
"The design for the living picture was laid out at the drill ground at Camp Dodge, situated in the beautiful valley of the Des Moines River. Thousands of yards of white tape were fastened
to the ground and formed the outlines on which 18,000 officers and men marched to their respective positions.
In this body of soldiers are any hundreds of men of foreign birth, born of parents whose first impression of the Land of Freedom and Promise was of the world's greatest colossus standing with beacon light at the portal of a nation of free people, holding aloft a torch symbolic of the light of liberty which the statue represents. Side by side with native sons these men, with unstinted patriotism, now offer to sacrifice not only their liberty but even life itself for our beloved country.
Below are some of the other photos:
The Human Liberty Bell", 1918, gelatin silver photo print. 25,000 people, Camp Dix in New Jersey
"The Human U.S. Shield", 1918, gelatin silver photo print. 30,000 people, Camp Custer in Battle Creek, Michigan.
Living Insignia of the Twenty-seventh Division", 1919, gelatin silver photo print. 10,000 people
Living Emblem of the United States Marines", 1919, gelatin silver photo print. 9,100 people, Marine barracks, Paris Island, S.C
