Volume 10 , Issue 10

Human Statue of Liberty - 1918, Iowa

I received this 1918 photograph of a Human Statue of Liberty in my email inbox this week, but have misplaced who sent it to me. Here is what I found out about this TRUE Event.

As the web site of the Iowa National Guard explains, the displayed photograph of a "human Statue of Liberty," formed by 18,000 posed soldiers, was taken in July, 1918 at Camp Dodge, Iowa, as part of a planned promotional campaign to sell war bonds during WWI:

"On a stifling July day in 1918, 18,000 officers and soldiers posed as Lady Liberty on the parade [drill] grounds at Camp Dodge. [this area was west of Baker St. and is currently the area around building S34 and to the west.] 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 F. 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."

You can read more about this TRUE 1918 Human Statue of Liberty over at Snopes Urban Legends - 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 ..... From the position nearest the camera occupied by colonel Newman and his staff, to the last man at the top of the torch as platted on the ground was 1,235 feet, or approximately a quarter of a mile....."

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