107th Infantry Memorial, Bronze war memorial in Central Park, United States.
The 107th Infantry Memorial is a war memorial at the edge of Central Park, at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 67th Street in New York City. It features seven bronze soldiers on a wide granite base, with inscriptions honoring both the Seventh Regiment of New York and the 107th United States Infantry Regiment.
The memorial was erected in 1927 to honor the soldiers of the regiment who died in World War I. It specifically remembers their role in breaking through the German Hindenburg Line at the Saint-Quentin Canal in 1918, a turning point in the final weeks of the war.
The bronze group was cast in 1927 at the Fond G. Vignali foundry in Florence, Italy, and shows seven soldiers advancing from the wooded edge of Central Park as if mounting a charge. The sculptor, Karl Illava, used his own hands as models for the soldiers' hands. The lead figure was said by the sculptor to be based on advertising executive Paul Cornell, not on boxer Gene Tunney, as some speculated at the unveiling.
The memorial sits right on the sidewalk at the park's edge and can be reached on foot without entering Central Park itself. The granite base carries inscriptions on multiple sides, so walking around it gives a more complete picture of what is commemorated.
The sculptor Karl Illava served as a sergeant in the regiment and used his own hands as models for some of the bronze figures. This means that part of the memorial is, in a literal sense, a self-portrait of someone who fought in the war it commemorates.
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