In Focus: World War I Discussion and Photography Exhibit

Denise Doring VanBuren, President General

The National Society is cooperating with the Doughboy Foundation and Hungarian Ambassador Szabolcs Takacs to host a unique, invitation-only photography exhibit focused on the 105th anniversary of America’s entry into World War I, as well as a discussion about the lessons learned during the conflict and how they apply to what is now occurring in Ukraine. The forum will be live-streamed and available for replay on my DAR President General Facebook page, as our National Society’s final commemoration of the World War I Centennial.

"In the Centennial Footsteps of the Great War” is the new two-volume book on which the exhibit is based. Focused on the centennial observances of the events of World War I, its first volume contains 410 pages and more than 700 photographs that take readers to the events that unfolded from Sarajevo to Versailles in 57 countries on five continents a century ago. All the pictures were taken between 2014 and 2021, most of them on the exact day of their centennials. (Volume II, due to be published before Christmas, will contain the full story of the American Expeditionary Force led by General Pershing that went to Europe during the last year of the conflict.) I have seen the first book, and it is impressive in scope and substance. The images are exceptional and reveal a full-color impact of the re-enacted events that makes them come to life in a unique and haunting way. Copies may be purchased here.

Hungarian photographer, economist and author Attila Szalay-Berzeviczy spent eight years traveling to all of the theaters of the war to capture the remarkable images on their centennial observances. A former president of the Budapest Stock Exchange, Szalay-Berzeviczy’a photographs illustrate thousands of re-enactors who staged moving and realistic commemorations to honor the memory of those who sacrificed during the Great War. A portion of the U.S. sales of the book will benefit the Doughboy Foundation, which has nearly completed construction of the National World War I Memorial in Washington, D.C.

I had first met Attila back in October, when he had traveled to France to photograph the events of the 100th anniversary of the selection and the return of the World War I unknown soldier who would ultimately lie within the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. (For details on that trip, please read this prior blog.) After learning more about his unique two-volume history book project about the centennial of the first global conflict, I invited him to display photographs related to the U.S. entry into the war as the culmination of our National Society’s Commemorative Events Committee observance of the centennial of World War I. At the time, neither of us suspected that the invasion of Ukraine would create similarities that would also make the topic so timely.

The event next week is formally hosted by Ambassador Szabolcs Takács, who was instrumental in helping our National Society to place a historic marker in Karcag, Hungary, on Feb. 22 to honor the birthplace of Michael Kovats de Fabriczy, considered one of the two Fathers of the American Cavalry (and who died in the Battle of Charleston, S.C.) Read more about that visit here and meet the ambassador through this short video produced in 2021. We are honored that the Ambassador has also invited us to the Hungarian Embassy here in Washington, D.C. to place a wreath at the equestrian statue of Kovats on May 11, the anniversary of Kovats death in battle.

In addition, representatives of the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC), a college of advanced studies located in Budapest, will take part in this discussion/reception. Founded in 1996, MCC provides supplementary training to students already enrolled in degree courses. Programs are generally free of charge, but admission is highly selective. The MCC also assisted in portions of our National Society’s recent trip to Hungary.

Security and capacity concerns regrettably kept us from opening this unique event to the full membership/general public. However, I do hope that you will join us for the livestream of the pre-reception discussion on the DAR President General’s Facebook page on April 6, the 105th anniversary of the U.S. entry into WWI; the stream is scheduled to begin at about 5 p.m. Soon after, I will post images from the exhibit and reception on my social media. I feel honored that we will host this unique event at DAR Memorial Continental Hall, where the Washington Naval Conference, also known as the Conference on the Limitation of Armament, was signed on November 12, 1921. Due to our hosting of the exhibit, our National Society is listed as a sponsor in the book and on its website.

Thanks to the wonders of the internet, I am so glad that you can join us virtually. Please do.

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