A Veterans Day post

Through its RSS feed, the Metropolitan Museum of Art selects daily an item to feature from its Collection Database. It’s a fun way to acquaint oneself with the bounty of the Museum’s collection and adds a little spice to the daily barrage of economic reports and business headlines that flood into my news reader.

I was particularly moved by today’s item, “Two Minute Silence, Armistice Day” (1918), a black-and-white photograph taken, one presumes, on the day the Armistice ending World War One was signed (rather than the official commemoration of the event a year later and then every year since). The photograph captures the “original” two-minute silence in London, which then became a staple of Armistice Day.

As we observe Veterans Day today in the U.S., I think it is especially moving to recall that four veterans of World War One died in 2009, the last three UK-resident veterans of that conflict, as well as the last Australian. According to Wikipedia, only three WWI veterans remain, one American, one Brit (currently living in Australia), and one Canadian.

The Divagator wishes to honor all Allied veterans of foreign wars. Many thanks for your service.