Saturday, July 4, 2020

Marine Corps War Memorial - Felix de Weldon


We just learned about the George Washington as President - Alexander Stirling Calder.

Another famous American statue is the Marine Corps War Memorial, also called the Iwo Jima Memorial, in Virginia, made in 1954 by Felix de Weldon.

In 1945 during World War II, the US was in a battle with Japan on the island of Iwo Jima.
It was a very important battle for the war, and when the US finally took over the island they raised up a big flag that was 8 feet long by 4 feet tall so that all of the soldiers could see it on the island.

Someone took a picture of them while they were putting it up, and it became a very famous picture that was used to help give Americans hope for our soldiers to win the war.

Felix de Weldon was famous for making great memorial sculptures, so they asked him to make a sculpture to match the picture.
It is made of bronze and weighs over 200,000 pounds.
There were six men in the statue, and when he sculpted it he had some of the soldiers who were the ones who actually raised up the flag pose for him to make sure his sculpture matched what they looked like.

On the front of the statue are the words "Uncommon Valor Was A Common Virtue" – "Semper Fidelis"
and on the back are the words "In Honor And Memory Of The Men Of The United States Marine Corps Who Have Given Their Lives To Their Country Since 10 November 1775"

The sculptor Felix de Weldon was born in Austria in 1907.
When he was 30 years old he moved to the US, where he became a citizen of the US.
He served in the Navy during world war II, and was famous for making over a thousand memorials all over the world, even Antarctica!


(from: wikipedia - marine corps war memorial)


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