Robert Ingersoll Aitken
American 1878-1949
Brothers-in-Arms, 1920
Bronze, dark brown patina
20 h. x 11 w. x 8 d. inches
Signed on base: AITKEN
Brothers-in-Arms was commissioned in 1920 by the New York City chapter of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity, and sold by subscription to the 25 then active chapters in the US and Canada, of which Aitken himself was a member. It is a memorial to the 93 Alpha Delta Phi fraternity members who died in WWI, and shows a wounded American and Canadian officer assisting one another off of the battlefield. This cast comes from a private estate in Canada, presumably from a member of the one inactive chapter in Ontario.
It has been called the Great War, and the War to end all Wars. We know it as World War l. It began in 1914 and ended with an armistice at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918.
High above the trenches, our soldiers witnessed the advent of military aviation, which forever altered the shape of modern combat and made World War I unlike any other conflict in human history. On the 100th anniversary of this great and terrible struggle, we reflect on the sacrifice of our nation's servicemen and the war whose enduring legacy shaped the social, military and political fabric of the 20th century. Aug. 4, 2014 marked the beginning of the centenary, which concludes on Nov. 11, 2018.
