1.
United States Army
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The United States Armed Forces are the federal armed forces of the United States. They consist of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, from the time of its inception, the military played a decisive role in the history of the United States. A sense of unity and identity was forged as a result of victory in the First Barbary War. Even so, the Founders were suspicious of a permanent military force and it played an important role in the American Civil War, where leading generals on both sides were picked from members of the United States military. Not until the outbreak of World War II did a standing army become officially established. The National Security Act of 1947, adopted following World War II and during the Cold Wars onset, the U. S. military is one of the largest militaries in terms of number of personnel. It draws its personnel from a pool of paid volunteers. As of 2016, the United States spends about $580.3 billion annually to fund its military forces, put together, the United States constitutes roughly 40 percent of the worlds military expenditures. For the period 2010–14, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute found that the United States was the worlds largest exporter of major arms, the United States was also the worlds eighth largest importer of major weapons for the same period. The history of the U. S. military dates to 1775 and these forces demobilized in 1784 after the Treaty of Paris ended the War for Independence. All three services trace their origins to the founding of the Continental Army, the Continental Navy, the United States President is the U. S. militarys commander-in-chief. Rising tensions at various times with Britain and France and the ensuing Quasi-War and War of 1812 quickened the development of the U. S. Navy, the reserve branches formed a military strategic reserve during the Cold War, to be called into service in case of war. Time magazines Mark Thompson has suggested that with the War on Terror, Command over the armed forces is established in the United States Constitution. The sole power of command is vested in the President by Article II as Commander-in-Chief, the Constitution also allows for the creation of executive Departments headed principal officers whose opinion the President can require. This allowance in the Constitution formed the basis for creation of the Department of Defense in 1947 by the National Security Act, the Defense Department is headed by the Secretary of Defense, who is a civilian and member of the Cabinet. The Defense Secretary is second in the chain of command, just below the President. Together, the President and the Secretary of Defense comprise the National Command Authority, to coordinate military strategy with political affairs, the President has a National Security Council headed by the National Security Advisor. The collective body has only power to the President
2.
United States Army Center of Military History
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The United States Army Center of Military History is a directorate within the Office of the Administrative Assistant to the Secretary of the Army. The center is responsible for the use of history and military records throughout the United States Army. Traditionally, this mission has meant recording the history of the army in both peace and war, while advising the army staff on historical matters. CMH is the organization leading the Army Historical Program. The center traces its lineage back to historians under the Secretary of War who compiled the Official Records of the Rebellion, a similar work on World War I was prepared by the Historical Section of the Army War College. They began publication of the United States Army in World War II series, since then, the Center has produced detailed series on the Armys role in the Korean and Vietnam Wars and has begun a series on the U. S. Army in the Cold War. These works are supplemented by monographs and other publications on a mix of topics and it has expanded its role in the areas of military history education, the management of the armys museum system, and the introduction of automated data-retrieval systems. The centers work with army schools ensures that the study of history is a part of the training of officers, much of this educational work is performed at field historical offices and in army museums. Under the direction of the chief of military history and his principal adviser and those works under way and projected are described in the Army Historical Program, an annual report to the Chief of Staff on the Army’s historical activities. All center publications are listed in the catalog Publications of the United States Army Center of Military History, CMH also serves as a clearinghouse for the oral history programs in the army at all levels of command. It also conducts and preserves its own oral history collections, including those from the Vietnam War, Desert Storm, in addition, the center’s end-of-tour interviews within the Army Secretariat and Staff provide a basis for its annual histories of the Department of the Army. As tangible representations of the mission, military artifacts and art enhance the soldier’s understanding of the profession of arms. CMH manages a system of more than 120 army museums and their holdings, current projects include the establishment of a National Army Museum at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and a complementary Army Heritage and Educational Center at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. The Chief of Military History is responsible for ensuring the use of military history in the teaching of strategy, tactics, logistics. This mission includes a requirement that military leaders at all levels be aware of the value of history in advancing military professionalism, in this effort, the chief of military history is assisted by a historical advisory committee that includes leading academic historians and representatives of the army school system. Staff rides enable military leaders to retrace the course of a battle on the ground, as one of the army’s major teaching devices, staff rides are particularly dependent on a careful knowledge of military history. Center historians lead rides directed by the Secretary of the Army and it administers the army’s Command History Program, to provide historical support to army organizations worldwide. To stimulate interest in history in the army and the nation
3.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
4.
American official war artists
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American official war artists have been part of the American military since 1917. Artists are unlike the objective lens which records only a single instant. The war artist captures instantaneous action and conflates earlier moments of the scene within one compelling image. In World War I, eight artists commissioned as captains in the U. S and these men were sent to Europe to record the activities of the American Expeditionary Forces. In 1941, the Navy Combat Art Program was founded in order to ensure that competent artists would be present at the scene of history-making events. Eight active duty artists developed a record of all phases of World War II, during the Korean War, the program was revived with two military artists in combat contexts. Since then, artists have been sent to combat zones. The U. S. Army War Art Unit was established in late 1942, in May 1943, Congress withdrew funding the unit was inactivated. The Armys Vietnam Combat Art Program was started in 1966, teams of soldier-artists created pictorial accounts and interpretations for the annals of army military history. These teams of five soldier-artists typically spent 60 days of duty in Vietnam embedded with various units. The U. S. Army Center of Military History currently includes an Army Art Collection with about 40 representative war artists, in 1992, the Army Staff Artist Program was attached to the United States Army Center of Military History. Army artists are a permanent part of the Museum Divisions Collections Branch, there are significant differences in the artwork created by the branches of the U. S. military, Military art and the work of American military artists includes both peacetime and wartime. For example, USMC combat artist Kristopher Battles deployed with American forces in Haiti to provide relief as part of Operation Unified Response after the disastrous earthquake in 2010. William James Aylward Walter Jack Duncan Harvey Thomas Dunn Kerr Eby Marines George Matthews Harding Wallace Morgan Ernest Clifford Peixotto John Singer Sargent J. Andre Smith. Murray, 1906–1992 Henry Varnum Poor, 1887–1970 Dwight Shepler, 1905–1974 Mitchell Siporin, 1910–1976 Taro Yashima CAT I,15 Aug -15 Dec 1966, Roger A. Blum, Robert C. Knight, Ronald E. Pepin, Paul Rickert, Felix R. Sanchez, John O. Wehrle, and supervisor, Frank M. Sherman. CAT II,15 Oct 1966 -15 Feb 1967, Augustine G. Acuna, Alexander A. Bogdanovich, Theodore E. Drendel, David M. Lavender, Gary W. Porter, and supervisor, Carolyn M. OBrien. CAT III,16 Feb -17 June 1967, Michael R. Crook, Dennis O. McGee, Robert T. Myers, Kenneth J. Scowcroft, Stephen H. Sheldon, and supervisor, C. Bruce Smyser
5.
United States Army Corps of Engineers
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The United States Army Corps of Engineers, also sometimes shortened to CoE is a U. S. Although generally associated with dams, canals and flood protection in the United States, the Corps of Engineers provides outdoor recreation opportunities to the public, and provides 24% of U. S. hydropower capacity. The corps mission is to Deliver vital public and military engineering services, partnering in peace and war to strengthen our Nations security, energize the economy and their most visible missions include, Planning, designing, building, and operating locks and dams. Other civil engineering projects include flood control, beach nourishment, design and construction of flood protection systems through various federal mandates. Design and construction management of military facilities for the Army, Air Force, Army Reserve and Air Force Reserve and other Defense and Federal agencies. The history of United States Army Corps of Engineers can be traced back to 16 June 1775, colonel Richard Gridley became General George Washingtons first chief engineer, however, it was not until 1779 that Congress created a separate Corps of Engineers. One of its first tasks was to build fortifications near Boston at Bunker Hill, the first Corps of Engineers was mostly composed of French subjects who had been hired by General Washington from the service of Louis XVI. that the said Corps. Shall be stationed at West Point in the State of New York, until 1866, the superintendent of the United States Military Academy was always an officer of engineer. During the first half of the 19th century, West Point was the major and, for a while, the General Survey Act of 1824 authorized the use of Army engineers to survey road and canal routes. Separately authorized on 4 July 1838, the U. S and it was merged with the Corps of Engineers on 31 March 1863, at which point the Corps of Engineers also assumed the Lakes Survey District mission for the Great Lakes. In 1841, Congress created the Lake Survey, the survey, based in Detroit, Mich. was charged with conducting a hydrographical survey of the Northern and Northwestern Lakes and preparing and publishing nautical charts and other navigation aids. The Lake Survey published its first charts in 1852, in the mid-19th century, Corps of Engineers officers ran Lighthouse Districts in tandem with U. S. Naval officers. The Army Corps of Engineers played a significant role in the American Civil War, many of the men who would serve in the top leadership in this institution were West Point graduates who rose to military fame and power during the Civil War. Some of these men were Union Generals George McClellan, Henry Halleck, George Meade, and Confederate generals Robert E. Lee, Joseph Johnston, the versatility of officers in the Army Corps of Engineers contributed to the success of numerous missions throughout the Civil War. They were responsible for building pontoon and railroad bridges, forts and batteries, the destruction of supply lines. The Army Corps of Engineers served as a function in making the war effort logistically feasible. This method of building trenches was known as the zigzag pattern, from the beginning, many politicians wanted the Corps of Engineers to contribute to both military construction and works of a civil nature. During World War II the mission grew to more than 27,000 military, included were aircraft, tank assembly, and ammunition plants, camps for 5.3 million soldiers, depots, ports, and hospitals, as well as the Manhattan Project, and the Pentagon
6.
American Expeditionary Forces
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The American Expeditionary Forces was the expeditionary force of the United States Army during World War I. It was established on July 5,1917, in France under the command of Gen. John J. Pershing, during the United States campaigns in World War I it fought, alongside French and British troops, against the German Empire. Some of the troops fought alongside Italian forces in that same year and it helped the French Army on the Western Front during the Aisne Offensive in June 1918, and fought its major actions in the Saint-Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne Offensives in late 1918. Pershing insisted that American soldiers be well-trained before going to Europe, as a result, few troops arrived before 1918. This attitude was not always received by the Allied leaders who distrusted the potential of an army lacking experience in large-scale warfare. In addition the British tried to bargain their spare shipping to make the US put its soldiers into British ranks. The French harbors of Bordeaux, La Pallice, Saint Nazaire and Brest became the points into the French railway system which brought the US forces. American engineers in France built 82 new ship berths, nearly 1,000 miles of additional tracks and 100,000 miles of telephone. The first American troops, who were often called Doughboys, landed in Europe in June 1917, a formation of regular soldiers and the first division to arrive in France, entered the trenches near Nancy. The AEF used French and British equipment, particularly appreciated were the French canon de 75 modèle 1897, the canon de 155 C modèle 1917 Schneider and the canon de 155mm GPF. American aviation units received the SPAD XIII and Nieuport 28 fighters, Pershing established facilities in France to train new arrivals with their new weapons. A fifth division, the 41st Division, had converted into a depot division near Tours. After the first offensive action and American-led AEF victory on 28 May 1918 at the Battle of Cantigny, the rest followed at an accelerating pace during the spring and summer of 1918. The training took a minimum of six due to the inexperience of the servicemen. The first offensive action by AEF units serving under command was 1,000 men. This battle took place under the command of the Australian Corps commander. The Allied force in this battle combined artillery, armor, infantry, and air support, U. S. Army and Marine Corps troops played a key role in helping stop the German thrust towards Paris, during the Second Battle of the Marne in June 1918. The first major and distinctly American offensive was the reduction of the Saint Mihiel salient in September 1918, during the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, beginning September 12,1918, Pershing commanded the U. S
7.
Smithsonian Institution
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The Smithsonian Institution, established in 1846 for the increase and diffusion of knowledge, is a group of museums and research centers administered by the Government of the United States. Originally organized as the United States National Museum, that ceased to exist as an administrative entity in 1967. Additional facilities are located in Arizona, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York City, Texas, Virginia, more than 200 institutions and museums in 45 states, Puerto Rico, and Panama are Smithsonian Affiliates. The Institutions thirty million annual visitors are admitted without charge and its annual budget is around $1.2 billion with 2/3 coming from annual federal appropriations. Other funding comes from the Institutions endowment, private and corporate contributions, membership dues, and earned retail, concession, Institution publications include Smithsonian and Air & Space magazines. The British scientist James Smithson left most of his wealth to his nephew Henry James Hungerford, Congress officially accepted the legacy bequeathed to the nation, and pledged the faith of the United States to the charitable trust on July 1,1836. The American diplomat Richard Rush was dispatched to England by President Andrew Jackson to collect the bequest, Rush returned in August 1838 with 105 sacks containing 104,960 gold sovereigns. Once the money was in hand, eight years of Congressional haggling ensued over how to interpret Smithsons rather vague mandate for the increase, unfortunately, the money was invested by the US Treasury in bonds issued by the state of Arkansas which soon defaulted. The United States Exploring Expedition by the U. S. Navy circumnavigated the globe between 1838 and 1842, in 1846, the regents developed a plan for weather observation, in 1847, money was appropriated for meteorological research. The Institution became a magnet for young scientists from 1857 to 1866, the Smithsonian played a critical role as the U. S. partner institution in early bilateral scientific exchanges with the Academy of Sciences of Cuba. The Smithsonian Institution Building began construction in 1849, designed by architect James Renwick Jr. its interiors were completed by general contract Gilbert Cameron and the building opened in 1855. The Smithsonians first expansion came with construction of the Arts and Industries Building in 1881, Congress had promised to build a new structure for the museum if the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition generated enough income. It did, and the building was designed by architects Adolf Cluss and Paul Schulze, meigs of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The National Zoological Park opened in 1889 to accommodate the Smithsonians Department of Living Animals and this structure was designed by the D. C. architectural firm of Hornblower & Marshall. More than 40 years would pass before the museum, the Museum of History. It was designed by the firm of McKim, Mead & White. That same year, the Smithsonian signed an agreement to take over the Cooper Union Museum for the Arts of Decoration, the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum opened in the Old Patent Office Building on October 7,1968. The first new building to open since the National Museum of Natural History was the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
8.
Reginald Marsh (artist)
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Reginald Marsh was an American painter, born in Paris, most notable for his depictions of life in New York City in the 1920s and 1930s. Crowded Coney Island beach scenes, popular entertainments such as vaudeville and burlesque, women and he painted in egg tempera and in oils, and produced many watercolors, ink and ink wash drawings, and prints. Reginald Marsh was born in an apartment in Paris above the Café du Dome and he was the second son born to parents who were both artists. His mother, Alice Randall was a miniaturist painter and his father, Frederick Dana Marsh, was a muralist, the family was well off, Marshs paternal grandfather had made a fortune in the meat packing business. Marsh attended the Lawrenceville School and graduated in 1920 from Yale University, at Yale Art School he worked as the star illustrator and cartoonist for campus humor magazine The Yale Record. Marsh was noted to have enjoyed his time at Yale. He moved to New York after graduation, where his ambition was to work as a freelance illustrator. Although not primarily remembered as a cartoonist, he was a prolific and he also created illustrations for the New Masses. A casual interest in learning to paint led Marsh, in 1921, to taking classes at the Art Students League of New York. By 1923 Marsh began to paint seriously, in 1925 Marsh visited Paris for the first time since he had lived there as a child and he fell in love with what the city had to offer him. While exploring the works of European painters such as Titian, Tintoretto, Benton, known today as a social realist, and regionalist painter, was also a great student of the Baroque masters. The resemblance Marsh saw between Tintorettos famous works and Bentons motivated Marsh to try to paint in a similar way, Marsh then studied under Kenneth Hayes Miller and George Luks, and chose to do fewer commercial assignments. Miller, who taught at the Art Students League of New York, instructed Marsh on the basics of form and design and he looked at Marshs early, awkward burlesque sketches and at his more conventional landscape watercolors and said, These awkward things are your work. Stick to these things and dont let anyone dissuade you, by the beginning of the 1930s Marsh began to express himself fully in his art. As late as 1944 Marsh wrote, “I still show him every picture I paint, Marsh began to work with John Steuart Curry after his training with Miller. Both Marsh and Curry took lessons from Jacques Maroger, whom Marsh met in New York City in 1940, Maroger provided a body of material documenting his work for Marsh and Curry to study, and they adopted his ideas. Marshs etchings were his first work as an artist, in the early 1920s he also made several linocuts, and later produced lithographs and engravings. When making prints of the etchings Marsh recorded how long the paper soaked for, the heating of the plate, Marsh enjoyed experimentation with all his artworks and was therefore renowned for his unique techniques
9.
Jack Levine
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Jack Levine was an American Social Realist painter and printmaker best known for his satires on modern life, political corruption, and biblical narratives. He first studied drawing with Harold K. Zimmerman from 1924-1931, at Harvard University from 1929 to 1933, Levine and classmate Hyman Bloom studied with Denman Ross. As an adolescent, Levine was already, by his own account, in 1932 Ross included Levines drawings in an exhibition at the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard, and three years later bequeathed twenty drawings by Levine to the museums collection. Levines early work was most influenced by Bloom, Chaim Soutine, Georges Rouault, along with Bloom and Karl Zerbe, he became associated with the style known as Boston Expressionism. From 1935 to 1940 he was employed by the Works Progress Administration. His first exhibition of paintings in New York City was at the Museum of Modern Art, with the display of Card Game and Brain Trust, the latter drawn from his observation of life in the Boston Common. In 1937 his The Feast of Pure Reason, a satire of Boston political power, was placed on loan to the Museum of Modern Art. In the same year String Quartet was shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the death of his father in 1939 prompted a series of paintings of Jewish sages. From 1942 to 1945 Levine served in the Army, in 1946 he married the painter Ruth Gikow and moved to New York City. After returning he continued to paint biblical subjects, and also produced Gangster Funeral, further commentary on American life was furnished by Election Night, Inauguration, and Thirty- Five Minutes from Times Square. Also in the late 1950s, Levine painted a series of portraits of his wife. Following the death of his wife in the 1980s came an increased interest in Hebraism, in 1979 he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member and became a full Academician in 1982. In 1973 the Vatican purchased Cain and Abel, to the satisfaction of Pope Paul VI, in 1978 a retrospective of Levines work was held at the Jewish Museum. Levine was the subject of a 1989 film documentary entitled Feast of Pure Reason, Levine died at his home in Manhattan, New York on November 8,2010 at the age of 95. DC Moore Gallery represents the Estate of Jack Levine, the first exhibition of his works at the gallery was in January 2010
This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Army Center of Military History document "Army Art Program".
