"Kittery, Maine: State of Maine Soldiers and Sailors Monument (WWI)"
 

County

York County

Location (Address)

The monument is located in the John Paul Jones State Historic Site, just before the Memorial bridge connecting to Portsmouth, on Route 1, in Kittery, Maine.

Zip Code

03904

Type

Sculpture

Additional Type

Monument

Additional Type

Memorial Park

Maker/Sculptor

Bashka Paeff

Date Erected

1924

Date Dedicated

5-31-1926

Inscriptions

THE STATE OF MAINE

TO HER SOLDIERS AND SAILORS

On the bottom of the bronze relief sculpture:

"LORD OF HOSTS LEST WE FORGET LEST WE FORGET

On back of monument:

State Seal in Bronze: "Dirigo"

Materials

Granite and Bronze

Comments

This monument was put forth by the State Legislature in 1919 as part of the plan for the Memorial Bridge connecting Kittery with Portsmouth, New Hampshire (dedicated in 1923). Governor Percival Baxter appointed a memorial commission in 1923. Russian Jewish sculptor, Bashka Paeff (raised in Boston), was awarded the commission to design the monument. The monument, featuring a woman holding a young child, was controversial at the time--considered too pacifist. Titled "The Sacrifices of War." The monument was dedicated on Armistice Day in 1924--the sculpture was dedicated on Memorial Day in 1926, and the Memorial was re-dedicated in 2000, when Angus King was Governor, after renovations had been made. The initial monument included a time capsule, replaced in 2000.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.

For More Information:

http://jwa.org/thisweek/may/31/1926/bashka-paeff

Photographer

Libby Bischof

Date Taken

2016

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