Last Saturday, Professor Hudgins and UB student Stephanie Danesie met at the War Memorial Building on Gay Street to attend the fall meeting of the Western Front Association East Coast branch.  They heard talks from the translator of a French soldier’s memoir, a member’s account of the German victory over the British navy at Coronel (off the coast of Chile), the director of the Woodrow Wilson House in D.C. discussing American neutrality, and more.  The Western Front Association gathers amateur researchers and experts twice a year to discuss various aspects of the Great War.  The fall meeting of the East Coast Branch takes place at the War Memorial building every year.  At noon, an intermission allowed us to walk just a couple of blocks to the Inner Harbor for lunch.

This year is the centennial of the war’s commencement, and 2017 will be the centennial of U.S. entry in the war.

The War Memorial Building was constructed in 1925 to honor the Maryland veterans of WWI (photo by Wally Gobetz).  WFA member Dane Coffman attended the meeting in a replica of General Pershing’s wartime uniform.