53 Peace Monuments in Michigan & Wisconsin (USA)

Detroit

Right click image to enlarge.

1930 - Ambassador Bridge Plaque, Ambassador Bridge, Detroit River, between Detroit, Michigan (USA), & Windsor, Ontario (Canada). Faces traffic from side of downstream cable anchorage structure at Detroit end of the bridge. /// From a blogger in Windsor: "For years, and years, I’ve wanted to get a photo of the great bronze plaques [sic] on the Ambassador Bridge, but I’ve never had the chance. Well, this weekend, I spent 1-1/2 hours crossing in the bridge [on foot or in slow traffic?]. The only highlight was the chance to grab a few shots of the bronzes [sic]. A large monongram of 'JMS' is visible. My good friend Einar came up with the sculptor Jonathan M. Swanson [1888-1963]. From what I gather, this was one of his largest works. Inscribed, 'The visible expression of friendship in the hearts of two peoples with like ideas and ideals – 1930.' We sure have come a long way in the last 77 years. I’m not sure how similar we our [sic] to our American neighbours anymore, and it’s a shame." /// NB: Ambassador Bridge opened on November 11, 1929. Miniatures of the 1930 plaque (about 3 x 2-1/2 inches) were issued (apparentely to commemorate the completion of the bridge) & today are sometimes sold on eBay. Upper & lower left images show the original plaque. Lower right image (copyright by medallicartcollector.com) is a 70x100 mm bronze paperweight designed by Jonathan M. Swanson [1888-1963]. Reverse side says "Compliments of J.W. Austin" who was treasurer of the bridge project.

1930 - Upper image shows cars & pedestrians on Ambassdor Bridge shortly after its opening. Lower image is recent photo of international boundary inside the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel (USA & Canada) under the Detroit River. The tunnel was opened the same year as the bridge.

June 17, 1940 - Peace Carillon, Belle Isle Park, Detroit River, Detroit, Michigan (USA). 85-foot tower designed by Clarence E. Day (brother-in-law of James E. Scripps, publisher of the Detroit News). Funds raised by journalist Nancy Brown who wrote a column for the Detroit News called "Experience" from 1919 to 1942 The 49-bell carillon was restored & computer automated in 2005. Right image shows inscription: "Dedicated to the glory of God and in hope of everlasting peace between the peoples of the Dominion of Canada and of the Vnited States of America. Monvment Bvilders of America-AD 1941."Entry #498 in the "Peace Movement Directory" by James Richard Bennett (2001).

1941 - International Peace Monument (Bench), Belle Isle Park, Detroit River, Detroit, Michigan (USA). Carved on the back of the bench are an eagle with 13 stars for the US & a crown & lion for Canada. Entry #494 in the "Peace Movement Directory" by James Richard Bennett (2001).

1951 - "Solidarity House" (UAW Headquarters) 8000 East Jefferson Avenue, Detroit, Michigan (USA). "Near the MacArthur Bridge to Belle Isle. The international headquarters of the United Auto Workers (UAW)." /// "This is a very significant site, perhaps the most symbolically significant site in the history of the labor movement in the United States."

M U S E U M

October 1984 - Holocaust Memorial Center (HMC), 28123 Orchard Lake Road, Farmington Hills, near Detroit, Michigan (USA). "The first free-standing institution of its kind in the USA. The fulfillment of a dream nurtured by Founder and CEO Rabbi Charles H. Rosenzveig [1920-2008] and embraced by his fellow members of Shaarit Haplaytah ('the Remnant,' survivors of the Holocaust)... The organization opened their new HMC [when?] expanding and adapting the former Old Orchard movie theater. The Center's new design received front-page coverage in the Wall Street Journal, with a headline asking, "Should a Museum Look as Disturbing as What it Portrays?" HMC is a partner organization of the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service, making it possible for Austrian men to work abroad as an intern instead of their conscription at the military."

June 13, 1986 - Swords Into Plowshares Peace Center & Gallery (SIP), Central United Methodist Church, 33 East Adams Avenue (corner of Woodward Avenue), Detroit, Michigan (USA). "5,000 sq. ft. art gallery, gift shop, children's corner & reference library." "Brings together the arts and the need for world peace." Created by James W. Bristah [1919-2001] & managed by Lois St. Aubin White. Right image shows part an exhibition at the center about Paul Robeson. One of 27 US museums in "Museums for Peace Worldwide" edited by Kazuyo Yamane (2008).

1986 - Heidelburg Project, Heidelburg Street, Detroit, Michigan (USA). "Tyree Guyton created the Heidelburg Project as an urban renewal project, transforming a rundown section of Detroit from a place where people were afraid to walk to an art exhibition that people wanted to visit." Image shows the "Dotty-Wotty" house, one of many trasformed by the proejct. Peace appears not to be an explicit theme, but the project's intent is peace. Notice Martin Luther King, Jr., on this house.

Date? - World Wall for Peace (WWFP), Detroit, Michigan (USA). One of many tiled World Walls for Peace in several different counries. Where is this one in Detroit?

B E L L

December 31, 1999 - Millennium Bell, Grand Circus Park, Detroit, Michigan (USA). On east side of the park. Ten ton bell steel & bronze bell celebrating the new millennium. Total weight 20,000 pounds. Project budget $330,000. Designed by Chris Turner & Matt Blake [1965-2008]. "One day, years ago, Blake discovered the ringer was missing. Different stories circulate about how & where he found the ringer. In any event, according to artist & friend Jerome Ferretti, Blake took the ringer to his garage & sent a 'ransom note' to the city, demanding that officials protect the ringer before he would return it. 'Matt was outrageous,' Ferretti says."

October 20, 2001 - Gateway to Freedom, Hart Plaza, Detroit, Michigan (USA). Depicts a group of slaves on US soil looking towards Canada and freedom. Detroit was on the central route to freedom, the "underground railroad." Sculpted by Ed Dwight. A collaboration of "Detroit 300" & the International Underground Railroad Monument Collaborative.

October 20, 2001 - Tower of Freedom, 100 Pitt Street East, Windsor, Ontario (Canada). "Faces the Gateway to Freedom monument across the Detroit River and together are called the International Memorial to the Underground Railroad. A 22 foot tower with a bronze Flame of Freedom created by Denver based sculptor Ed Dwight. The monument honours the harrowing journey made by thousands in search of freedom and pays tribute to Ontario’s role in the Underground Railroad."

M U S E U M

2005 - Arab American National Musuem, 13624 Michigan Avenue, Dearborn, Michigan (USA). "First museum in the world devoted to Arab American history & culture. By bringing the voices and faces of Arab Americans to mainstream audiences, we continue our commitment to dispel misconceptions about Arab Americans and other minorities. We brings to light the shared experiences of immigrants and ethnic groups, paying tribute to the diversity of our nation." Entrance mural designed by Dr. Fayeq Oweis of California. A Smithsonian Affiliate.

Remainder of Michigan & Wisconsin

Right click image to enlarge.

January 25, 1893 - Beckwith Memorial Theatre, Front & Beeson Streets, Dowagiac, Michigan (USA). Dedicated by Robert Ingersoll. Razed in 1968. Philo D. Beckwith [1835-1889] "was a committed freethinker who wanted to 'make the townsfolk aware & appreciative of those his personal pantheon of heroes & heroines whom he considered to be the true benefactors of the human race.'" /// In 1892 in memory of Beckwith, his daughter Kate & son-in-law, Fred Lee built the theatre (regarded as one of the finest between New York & Chicago). The building also contained a bank, city hall & Round Oak Company offices. The building's exterior featured stone relief medallions of six famous women (e.g. Susan B. Anthony, Sarah Bernhardt, George Sand) &14 famous men (e.g. Beethoven, Chopin, Emerson,Victor Hugo, Robert Ingersoll, Liszt, Thomas Paine, Shakespeare, Walt Whitman, Shakespeare & Voltaire). /// "When the building was razed in 1966 [sic], the busts were salvaged. Eight are today used in columns standing at the entrance to the Lyons Building at Southwestern Michigan College in Dowagiac." /// Right image shows the bust of Ingersoll in the Robert Green Ingersoll Birthplace Museum in Dresden, New York.

September 1924 - Cenotaph, Sault Sainte Marie Courthouse, 426 Queen Street, Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan (USA). "By Toronto sculptor Alfred Howell [1889-1978]. The third of a group of four memorials designed by the artist. His other memorials are in St. John (New Brunswick), Oshawa, and Guelph. Howell’s Sault Ste. Marie design signified the 'Triumph of Right over the God of War.' On the memorial 'War' is represented by a crouching figure under the shield, and 'Right' is signified by a draped figure holding a sword in her right hand and in her left a cluster of maple leaves. /// A persuasive letter in 1924 from Sault Star editor J. W. Curran to Rudyard Kipling [1865-1936] convinced the famous poet, in an almost unheard of request, to write the inscription that now appears on the memorial: 'From little towns, in a far land, we came, To save our honour and a world aflame; By little towns, in a far land, we sleep, And trust those things we won To you to keep. — Rudyard Kipling, 1925.'"

1905 - Japanese Shinto-Torii Monument, Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan (USA). "Brought by Govenor Chase Osborn [1860-1949] for use as an entry monument [sic]. It is no longer used for that purpose though. Nearby there is a sign that mentions Sault Ste. Marie's sister city in Japan, Ryuo-Cho, Shiga-Ken. It was built in 1905."

July 4, 1943 - Statue of Abraham & Mary Todd Lincoln, East Park (now Gateway Technical College), Racine, Wisconsin (USA). First statue of Lincoln with his wife Mary Todd Lincoln [1818-1882].

1944 - Lidice Memorial, Phillips, Wisconsin (USA). "A tribute to the village of Lidice (Czechoslovakia). In 1942, the village was destroyed & nearly all of its citizens were killed by the Ordnungspolizei of Nazi Germany in response to Operation Anthropoid, the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich [1904-1942]. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006."

After 1960 - Kennedy Marker, on steps of the Michigan Union building, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan (USA). Embedding on spot where President Kennedy stood when he announced the idea of the Peace Corps on October 14, 1960. Entry #490 in the "Peace Movement Directory" by James Richard Bennett (2001). Visited by EWL.

1964 - "Freedom of the Human Spirit," New York World's Fair, Flusing Meadow, Queens New York City, New York (USA). By Marshall W. Fredericks [1908-1998]. Moved in 1996 to the main entrance of the Arthur Ashe Stadium, National Tennis Center (NTC), also in Flushing (right image). The artist made a second casting of the 28-foot tall sculpture in 1986, and it was installed in his hometown, Birmingham, Michigan (left image).

1965 - Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History (MAAH), 315 East Warren Avenue, Detroit, Michigan (USA). One of 27 US museums in "Museums for Peace Worldwide" edited by Kazuyo Yamane (2008).

1972 - "American Eagle," Gerald R. Ford Museum & Burial Site, 303 Pearl Street NW, Grand Rapids, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49504-5353 (USA). NB: Ford Library is at different address: 1000 Beal Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48109. Gerald Ford [1913-2006] was US president 1974-1977. The eagle statue in front of the museum is by Marshall Fredericks [1908-1998]. Installed in September 1981? Nearby is at the Van Andel Museum Center is "Flying Geese," spulpted by Fredericks in 1981. /

1976 - Megiddo Peace Table, Ann Arbor, Michigan (USA). "Served as the opening peace table at the 1999 Hague Appeal for Peace, the world's largest ever peace meeting. Noble peace prize winners Desmond Tutu, Rigoberta Menchu Tum & Jose Ramos Horta sat around the table, moderated by David Andrews of Ireland, and talked of what they had learned in their peace efforts in South Africa, Guatemala & East Timor. The table served in the room where different meetings discussed small arms dealing, child soldiers, nuclear weapons, the war in the Sudan & two sessions on Jerusalem." Activist Alan Haber & his wife Odile Hugonot Haber propose "to take the peace table to a peace meeting" in Megiddo (Israel). Bottom image is sight from Hill of Megiddo (Har Megiddo = Armageddon), ancient crossroads of Egypt, Europe & Persia, a hoped-for location of the Peace Table.

Date? - Peace Memorial Statue, Oakwood Mausoleum, Oakwood Cemetery, 6100 Gratiot Road, Saginaw, Michigan (USA). "This statue of a man beating his swords into plowshares is the biblical representation of peace."

Date? - Rosa Parks Bus, Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn, Michigan (USA). Right image shows President Obama visiting the bus in the museum on April 18, 2012. Hard to date this unintentional monument. It was not immediately iconic in December 1955 when Parks started the Montgomery Bus Boycott. When & where was the bus "found" (left image)? And when did it first go on display (middle image)?

1984 - Samantha Smith & Katerina Lycheva Children's Peace Garden, Pine Grove Park, Port Huron, Michigan (USA). Click here for Wikipedia article about Samantha Smith [1972-1985]. See 1989 statue in Augusta, Maine (USA). Soviet schoolgirl Katerina Lycheva (age 11) made a five-city "peace trip" tour of the USA as a memorial to Samantha Smith (who died at age 13). Entry #510 in the "Peace Movement Directory" by James Richard Bennett (2001).

1985 - Peace Pole Makers USA, 7221 South Wheeler Road, Maple City, Michigan (USA). Click here for an anticle about Peace Pole Makers USA (Fall 2000). Click here for a YouTube video of a visit to Peace Pole Makers USA (July 2008).

April 8, 1988 - Tree of Peace, Bird Effigy Mound, Observatory Drive, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin (USA). "Small, pine sapling was laid into the earth under the spiritual guidance of Mohawk Elder Jake Swamp, traditional teacher of the Iroquois Longhouse, during an hour long prayer vigil. The prayer was a long set of instructions for the young tree to abide by as it slowly grew into maturity."

1988 - Marhall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum & Sculpture Garden, Saginaw Valley State University, 7400 Bay Road, University Center, Michigan (USA). The work of sculptor Marshall Fredericks [1908-1998]. Click here for all of Fredericks' peace sculpture.

1989 – Peace Circle, Knudsen Elementary School, Waterford, Michigan (USA). Daily assembly of school children around a peace pole and a US flag.

1991 - Stop, Look, and Listen, A. J. Muste Alcove, Van Wylan Library (2nd floor), Hope College, Holland, Michigan (USA). "Named for Hope College alumnus and well-known peace activist A. J. Muste [1885-1967]. He spent his life working with Quakers and Communists, organized labor and radical peace activists, all in the name of non-violent solutions to the world's problems. The green sculpture pieces were created by a Hope graduate. They offer a graffiti-friendly way to express your thoughts and convictions." Entry #494 in the "Peace Movement Directory" by James Richard Bennett (2001).

1991 -Peace Park, Ann Arbor & Inverness Streets, Dexter, Michigan (USA). Near Ann Arbor. Established by "People for Peace." "A .2-acre mini park on the east side of the Village, has picnic tables and benches for residents to enjoy. The mission of Peace Park is to encourage residents to relax and reflect on the cultural and social diversity of the Village." Click here for satellite image. On Geocache Trail which started on April 1, 2012.

1993 - Mural of Peace, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (USA). By Puerto Rican artist Reynaldo Hernandez who "works as a muralist throughout the state, creating murals which reflect the culture or community that requests his work."

Date? - Memorial, James Madison Park, Madison, Wisconsin (USA). Dedicated to the veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Other ALB memorials in Seattle, WA, & San Francisco, CA (qv).

S T A T U E

1994 - Underground Railroad Memorial, near W.K. Kellogg Manor House, off of West Van Buren Street, Battle Creek, Michigan (USA). "The nation's largest monument to the Underground Railroad. The 28 foot long & 14 foot high bronze statue was made possible by the generosity of the WK Kellogg Foundation & Glenn A. Cross Estate. By sculptor Ed Dwight. The lovely park like setting with flower-lined pathways showcases the beauty of the statue. A information kiosk is on site to provide information. Honors the men & women who operated the Underground Railroad, specifically Harriet Tubman [1822-1913] and Erastus & Sarah Hussey. The latter were local conductors of the Underground Railroad. Harriet Tubman never came to Battle Creek."

T R E E

October 4, 1997 - Gandhi Tree of Knowledge, Shapiro Undergraduate Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan (USA). "A memorial to Gandhi's life & teachings. Result of the joint effort of the Indian American Student Association & Project Serve. Assistant Provost & Director of the Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives John Matlock, who [attended the dedication], stressed that activism can appear in a variety of forms & that students can make it a daily part of their lives."

September 6, 2001 - Ecliptic Park, Rosa Parks Circle, Grand Rapids, Michigan (USA). Designed by Maya Lin. Intended to depict water as solid, liquid & vapor. "The heart of [the park] is a skating rink that converts into an amphitheater in the warmer months & is lit by tiny fiber-optic lights, which are embedded in its surface & laid out in a pattern representing a constellation of stars as of January 1, 2000." "Lin's first project incorporating art & architecture in one site. The rings create an optical illusion in which their slight slope also makes the surface of the rink appear to tilt with the earth's curvature." The park also contains a steaming "Water Table Fountain" [lower image], two small service buildings in steel & concrete, a pair of fountains & short, wandering paths through landscaped mounds of grass that rise and fall in waves about three feet high. /// Grand Rapid's famour LibDub video was made in & around the park in May 2011.

B E L L

2003 - Liberty Bell, The Highground Veterans Memorial Park, Neillsville, Wisconsin (USA). An exact replica of the original Liberty Bell. Cast in France, mounted on a trailer, and taken to thousands of schools throughout the USA. Now housed in an authentic timber frame building made by Master Timber Framer Lyle Lindholm & volunteers.

August 30, 2003 - "Transcending" (Michigan Labor Legacy Monument), Philip Hart Plaza, Detroit, Michigan (USA). Near the intersection of Woodward & Jefferson. "Funded by United Auto Workers, Detroit area AFL-CIO & others. Sculpted by David Barr from Livonia & Sergio de Guisti, an Italian sculptor living in Redford Township at this time of his selection. Two steel arcs — the work of David Barr — stretch 63 feet into Detroit’s sky & weigh 30 tons. Barr saw them as an elegantly stylized gear emerging from the ground. They are not joined, & many assume they represent the unfinished mission of the American labor movement. However, at night, a light projects from one of the arcs at its zenith to the other. The sculptors assumed that viewers would focus on that light. To them, this light symbolized the energy of workers. At the base are 14 Vermont granite boulders, each six feet in height. The bas reliefs on those impressive boulders are the work of Sergio de Guisti. They remind us of the sacrifices & achievements of American workers. There are also more than a dozen plaques commemorating the accomplishments of the American labor movement such as the prohibition of child labor, free public school education and employer paid pensions and health care. This monument stands close to where Dr. Martin Luther King first gave his “I Have a Dream” speech on June 20, 1963, a speech that reached an even larger audience when Dr. King repeated its famous phrases at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on August 28 of that same year. Dr. King’s optimistic phrase: The arc of history bends toward justice is included in this sculpture."

P O L E

May 28, 2005 - Peace Pole, Rockport Park Peace Park, Janesville, Wisconsin (USA). From Wikipedia: "Perhaps the world's tallest Peace Pole, at 52 feet, is located in Janesville at the site of a KKK rally. The initial inspiration for planting Peace Poles often is as a response to a local issue like a KKK rally." This park also "includes a two-story Native American teepee with reproduced Peace paintings inside by Janesville's own Gary Gandy."

P O L E

September 25, 2005 - Granite Peace Pole, Peace Pole Park, Beech Acres Park, Anderson Township, Hamilton County, Ohio (USA). About 12 miles east of Cincinnati. "A multi-ton granite peace pole that cost $65,000 with landscaping. By artist Joel Selmeier." From Wikipedia: "Another of the largest Peace Poles in the world, as measured in tons, is the granite Peace Pole in Beech Acres Park near Cincinnati, Ohio. The original inspiration for it was hate literature left in the driveways of Jewish residents." /// "Uncharacteristically does not have the message engraved on the pole itself. Instead the translations are on the six granite monoliths around it. On each of the monoliths the phrase "May peace prevail on earth" is engraved in a different language on each side for a total of twelve translations."

2005 - Peace Pole, Michigan Avenue & 3rd Street, Sheboygan, Wisconsin (USA). "The dream of Larry Sands MacDonald, a Sheboygan businessman & community activist [who] worked to inspire the world, looking for the good in all people. A prolific volunteer, he was the first chairman of Brat Days & a busy member of the Jaycees. He was involved in People to People. He and his wife promoted AFS, hosting six students 7 three teachers, and in 1990, he was honored as Kiwanis Citizen of the Year."

2005 - Four-sided Peace Poles at private homes in Michigan (USA). Pole at left (showing Polish & German) was planted in Traverse City in 2005. Pole at right (showing English) was planted at 163 Wythe Street, Pentwater (near Lake Michigan), about 1995.

Date? - Flint Sitdown Strike Memorial, Sitdowners Memorial Park, Flint, Michigan (USA). Honors "sitdowners" of the 1936-1937 UAW automobile strike.

Date? - Flint Sitdown Strike Historical marker, Sitdowners Memorial Park, Flint, Michigan (USA).

April 19, 2007 - "Spirit of Solidarity" monument, Grand Rapids, Michigan (USA). "Designed by [Argentina-born] carpenters union member Roberto Chenlo. The man with his fist in the air is a striker; a younger man beckons others to take part; and a woman represents the workers’ wives. Approximately 150 Michigan labor activists & community leaders helped dedicate the bronze monument" on the 96th anniversary of the start of the 1911 furniture workers strike [which] "created a spirit of solidarity that set the stage for many labor gains to come."

November 20, 2009 - Peace Monument, Wausau, Wisconsin (USA). "Brainchild of Egyptian exchange student Mustafah Saleh and Chuck McCarthy from the Good News Project. Richard Riley from the State Department and Mahmoud Amer from the Egyptian Consulate...talked about the importance of local diplomacy and how it's interactions like this that can lead to peace, not just on a strategic or national scale, but person to person. Saleh said he will take its plans back home and get a similar structure built there.

2011 - New Baltimore, Michigan (USA). North of Detroit. "Lynn & Wayne Bell stand behind the 10 foot scaled replica of the Perry's Victory & International Peace monument at their home on September 15, 2011. Wayne Bell recently had it made for his wife; he proposed to her at that monument about 20 years ago."

June 31, 1931 - Perry's Victory & International Peace Memorial, Put-in-Bay, South Bass Island, Ohio (USA). "Established to honor those who fought in the Battle of Lake Erie, during the war of 1812, but in equal part it is here to celebrate the long-lasting peace between Britain, Canada, and the US." /// "A 352 foot (107 m) monument — the world's most massive Doric column — was constructed in Put-in-Bay, Ohio by a multi-state commission from 1912 to 1915 "to inculcate the lessons of international peace by arbitration and disarmament." Beneath the stone floor of the monument lie the remains of three American officers and three British officers. It is among the tallest monuments in the United States (the Gateway Arch, San Jacinto Monument, and the Washington Monument are taller). Although substantially completed in 1915, funding problems prevented the proper completion of a fully realized memorial complex. In 1919 the federal government assumed control of the monument and provided additional funding. The official dedication was celebrated on July 31, 1931. In 2002, 2.4 million dollars was spent on a new visitor center. The memorial is visited by 200,000 people each year." Entry #818 in the "Peace Movement Directory" by James Richard Bennett (2001).

July 15, 2012 - "Granite Marker, Town of Berlin, Marathon County, Wisconsin (USA). "Commemorates Pomeranian immigrants who settled in the area. Organized by the Pommerscher Verein Central Wisconsin, a heritage group that studies the history, culture & Low German (or Platt) language known to their ancestors, the celebration included singing, dancing, speeches & even a release of pigeons as the monument was unveiled. The songs included a version of "On Wisconsin" and "You Are My Sunshine" in Platt, as well as "Das Pommernlied," which was written in 1850. The group is believed to be the first to translate the Wisconsin state song into a dialect language."

July 18, 2015 - Mackinac Island Peace Garden, Mackinac Island, Michigan (USA). Includes "Be Still" sculpture by Gareth Cartiss (statue of Indian standing on a Great Turtle & flanked by an American eagle & a British lion. "This peace garden & statue represent the War of 1812 and the now lasting peace between the nations involved." Dedicated exactly 200 years to the day after Britain peacefully returned control of the island to the United States.

June 2016 - "Embracing Peace," Memorial Park, Woodward & 13 Mile, Royal Oak, near Detroit, Michigan (USA). "...a sculpture depicting the famous Life Magazine cover photo taken on VJ Day (August 15, 1945) in Times Square, New York City, of a sailor dipping a nurse & planting a kiss for all time. The statue, on loan for six months, is intended to draw attention to a $3 million fundraising campaign for a permanent Michigan World War II Legacy Memorial..." /// "The statue is one of four by artist Seward Johnson; the others are permanently in Sarasota, Florida.; San Diego, California; and Normandy, France. This piece was previously in New York City for the 70th anniversary of V-J Day.

San Diego, CA

August 19, 2017 - Peace Memorial & Garden, behind the Johnson-Phinney building, 117 Cass Street, Monroe, Michigan (USA). From Monroe News, February 18, 2016: " The Monroe County Historical Society is raising money to construct a peace memorial and garden honoring the 200 years of peace between the United States, Canada & Britain. “Two hundred years of peace is unusual,” Mrs. Guyor said. “Even though we were enemies then, since that time we have fought as brothers in arms in World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm and now.” The relationship should be acknowledged and celebrated, Mrs. Guyor said. “We have been more than allies,” she said. “Why do we not want to celebrate that?” A bronze sculpture, which already has been created, will sit atop a black granite base. The sculpture was made by Joseph de Angelis, who created a similar piece in the Navy Yard Garden [King's Navy Yard Park] in Amherstburg, Ontario, Monroe’s sister city. [See other de Angelis sculpture in China.] The bronze piece, which stands more than 5 feet tall, includes three intertwining muskets that sprout five roses at the top. A Native American feather is featured on one of the muskets. “Roses are a sign of peace,” Mrs. Guyor explained. “The feather is very important because of the Native American contribution.” Local artist Darlene Belair designed the monument, which will stand about 14 feet overall. Along the sides of the granite are cannon barrels, Mrs. Belair said. “We wanted to tie in the war and peace,” she said. "

Future - Peace Statue, northwest corner of Wausau Center Mall (intersection of River Drive, Washington Street & First Street), Wausau, Wisconsin (USA). "A 10-foot-tall statue of a steel globe with a dove below it with the word 'peace' written on one wing in English and on the other wing in Arabic." Proposed by Moustafa Saleh, an Egyptian foreign exchange student at Northcentral Technical College. "Saleh, 29, told the Capital Improvements & Street Maintenance Committee that he wanted to show his appreciation for Wausau’s acceptance of him while he was a guest. The committee approved the sculpture 4-1 on May 14 following a heated debate between council members Ed Gale and Matt Kaiser. Gale, a retired Marine, supported the idea and grew angry when Kaiser suggested the peace message might be objectionable to some military veterans."