Stone Truths: American Memorial Landscapes of World War I

In the cemeteries and monuments that the United States established in France after World War I, the American Battle Monuments Commission included maps and summaries documenting the operations of the American Expeditionary Forces. Etched into stone, these displays were based on research conducted by the commission’s historical section, a long-term project that led to the multivolume summaries that the commission published in the 1940s. Although the commission worked to shape memory and affect public opinion of the United States’ contributions to the war, the following analysis shows that it also strived to develop an accurate historical record of American military operations.