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
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
"Kittery, Maine: State of Maine Soldiers and Sailors Monument (WWI)" (2016). York. 7.
https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/york/7
For More Information:
http://jwa.org/thisweek/may/31/1926/bashka-paeff
Photographer
Libby Bischof
Date Taken
2016
Preview
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.