Although the assignment of the eight AEF artists to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was purely a formality, they found the many and varied activities of this branch of the AEF interesting subject matter. The industrial scale of the military effort demanded an enormous technical and logistical presence. Tens of thousands of men served loading, unloading, stockpiling, moving, and maintaining the tons of war materiel sent to France in support of the combat troops.
American Troops Supply Train
William James Aylward
Oil and gouache on paper, 1918
The AEF WWI war art collection currently is held by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, Division of Armed Forces History, from which the artworks in this exhibition are on loan.