CABOT -- Sunday saw the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I, the conflict then given the hopeful but illusory label of "the war to end all wars."
Nov. 11, commemorated in America for years as Armistice Day, was renamed Veterans Day in 1954 to honor participants in all U.S. wars. The Museum of American History in Cabot covers some of those other combats, but highlights World War I in a resonant special exhibit.
Focused on Arkansans who fought in France in 1918, along with families back home, it displays a labor-of-love centerpiece. This is a quilt artfully stitched by dozens of Lonoke County women to salute the more than 1,000 local men in uniform. It disappeared for some time until found in 2016 by Mike Polston, founder and director of the museum, operated since 1985 by Cabot High School with student involvement.
A sign recounts the history of the quilt, embroidered with the names of about 60 Lonoke County men in uniform. It was "the prize in a 25-cent-a-ticket raffle to raise money for the war effort. The winner, Pledger Monk, cared for the quilt for many years, and upon his passing it was handed down in the family."
The quilt eventually went to Pat Monk Marshall, who gave it to the Cherry Library in Cabot. But "within a few years, the whereabouts of the quilt came into question. Fortunately it had been transferred into the collection of the newly created Lonoke County Museum."
As Polston explains, "They had stored the quilt away in a box, and it had more or less been forgotten. They weren't sure where it was. But we eventually found it, and it's now part of our permanent collection. For a cloth object a century old, the condition is remarkably good."
Also displayed is a letter from Guy L. Glover, one of the soldiers named on the quilt. Writing from St. Nazaire, France, a month after the Armistice, Glover told his Cabot aunt and uncle that "I had a spell of the influenza since arriving over here." The flu pandemic of 1918-1919 and other diseases accounted for more than half the 2,182 fatalities among the 71,862 Arkansans who served in the Army, Navy and Marine Corps.
"This is a wonderful place, but the old USA is more wonderful to me," Glover wrote. "Have been over a good part of France. Have seen some very pretty things here, but no comparison to the things at home. Even the girls are not as pretty as the American girls, or at least I don't think so."
Glover may have been equipped with one of the books touted in newspaper ads displayed at the museum. For $1.29 including postage, he could have acquired "Conversational War-French in a Pocket Manual," The ad promised that "by referring to this book, he can instantly find out how to express in French anything he needs to say" -- perhaps to one of those "not as pretty" Gallic girls.
On the homefront, patriotic songs were popular. That is evident in sheet music on exhibit from the last decade before commercial radio, when pianos commonly provided a good deal of home entertainment.
The cover of the "Wilson March" tune carried a portrait of President Woodrow Wilson with a U.S. flag in the background. Perhaps intended to strike a chord with Arkansans and other states of the former Confederacy was the music to "For Dixie and Uncle Sam," described as "Ernest R. Ball's big hit" and a "novelty march ballad." It pictured a Southern belle watching a procession of Doughboys, headed for the war to end all wars.
The Museum of American History, 114 S. First St., Cabot, is usually open 1-4 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday. Admission is free, with donations appreciated. For more information, visit cabotar.gov or call (501) 286-9665. Information on the many memorials and other sites in Arkansas related to World War I can be found at arkansas.com/sites-memorials.html.
Style on 11/13/2018