One Man, One War, One Hundred Years

Iowa artist Michael Wilson was inspired to create this body of work after finding World War I pictures and memorabilia of his beloved great-uncle Herb Thordsen, who served as a machine-gunner in the 321st Machine Gun Battalion. Timed to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the November 11th, 1918 armistice (the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month”), One distills the Great War down to the level of one man and the history he shared with his young great-nephew.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website