293. Carry On

In the Christian Petersen Art Collection, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Date	1942
Material	Painted plaster
Dimensions	33 x 55 x 29 in. (83.8 x 139.7 x 73.7 cm)
Description	Crouching World War II soldier beside fallen World War I doughboy. Proposed war memorial honoring service men from World Wars I and II.
Markings	n/a
Provenance / Location	Charlotte Petersen; Memorial Union, ISU, Ames, Iowa; CPAC, Transferred from Memorial Union. UM2007.10
Alternate Title(s)	Previously known as "Men of Two Wars". Referenced in one 1964 article "Freedom Eternal".
Notes / Sources	Iowa State Daily, Dec. 5, 1942; Image: Des Moines Tribune, Nov. 26, 1942; The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), Dec. 27, 1942; The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), Nov. 29, 1942; Wallace's' Farmer, Col 68, Issue 1, 1943; Iowa State Daily, June 21, 1961 listed as "Men of Two Wars"; Des Moines Tribune, May 11, 1964.

Soon after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 brought war to America, Petersen began work on a sculpture that would express the awful continuity from World War I to World War II. He revived an earlier sculptural idea that he had used in which a dying young soldier lifts a torch to pass on to other fighters. Now he joined the figure of that young man, a World War I doughboy, with a second one, a G.I. of World War II. Eliminating the torch, Petersen makes his point by placing the G.I. beside the soldier from the earlier war, ready to carry on the renewed struggle. Both soldiers look outward, the doughboy straining to lift his head, the G.I. with a grim and determined focus.