Park Avenue Armory

Park Avenue Armory’s mission is to revitalize one of America’s historic treasures as a dynamic alternative arts space unlike any other in New York. Part palace, part industrial shed, the Armory is dedicated to the development and presentation of work...

[parkavenuearmory]

Today on Veterans Day, we salute all our veterans of the Armed Forces, past and present, and remember the men of the 107th Infantry in World War I. On this day in France in 1918, the 107th celebrated the signing of the Armistice with French and British troops. As veterans and active duty members gather today in the halls of the Armory to commemorate this centennial, we thank you all for your service and sacrifice.

[parkavenuearmory]

Tracking the Regiment: After the devastating Battle of Saint-Quentin, the 107th Infantry was given no rest. They continued to march from one skirmish to another going “over the top five times in three weeks” as one man put it. They were described by a fellow New Yorker as an “awful forlorn looking bunch, filthy and just completely all in.” 

Then they regrouped with other US troops and the British Fourth Army in Saint-Souplet, France in mid-October. They hunkered down in dugouts and were incessantly shelled and shot by the German troops which had been refreshed with reserves. The objective for the Allied forces was to press through an estimated 50,000 German troops to free the occupied towns and farms in their way. Starting on Oct. 17 and ending on Oct. 20, the Battle of Saint-Souplet took an extreme toll on the 27th Division and the 107th lost 65 men in the struggle to claim ten miles of land. But the Germans were retreating. And at the end of this battle, the 27th Division received word that their service was over. They had no more replacement troops and they were too weak to fight effectively. The 107th Infantry and many others were to head home.

[parkavenuearmory]

Tracking the Regiment: On September 29 and 30, 1918, Allied forces including the men of Seventh Regiment executed their attack at The Hindenburg Line. With tanks exploding around them, the men of Companies B and C encountered the enemy within 25 yards of launching their attack at great loss of life. Company D followed and captured 60 prisoners within the first ten minutes of battle. Trench after trench, the men pressed forward at great expense: more than half of the Regiment were either killed or injured on the first day of battle and only 5 officers remained, making it the largest daily loss in any American Regiment during WWI.

Included among the casualties was Captain Fancher Nicoll (Company L), a 39-year-old lawyer and father of two who joined the Regiment in 1900 and was part of two old New York families who dated back to the Revolutionary War. It was reported in The New York Times that even as Captain Nicoll himself was dying, he reached out his hand to comfort the wounded beside him.

Sgt. John C. Latham, Sgt. Alan Eggers and Cpl. Thomas O'Shea of Machine Gun Company, 107th, became separated from the regiment during the Battle of the Hindenburg Line. They took cover where they could, which ended up being in a shell hole within enemy lines. Hearing a cry for help, they realized it was coming from a disabled American tank nearby. All three left the safety of their shelter and headed toward the tank, despite the heavy machine-gun fire. The 23-year-old O'Shea was hit along the way and died. Latham and Eggers made it to the tank, where they were able to rescue a wounded officer and help two other soldiers find cover in a nearby trench. They headed back to the tank, despite the heavy fire, and wrestled the machine gun off, taking it back to the trench with the wounded men. They were able to use that gun to fend off German attackers for the rest of the day. When darkness fell, all of the surviving men were able to make it back to Allied lines. For their bravery and quick thinking, Latham, Eggers and O'Shea all earned the Congressional Medal of Honor.

By the end of the second day of battle, the Regiment sustained 335 casualties and 884 wounded men, having captured nearly 2,000 enemy troops. By October 1, the last major German defense line was penetrated, and the Allies continued to advance and attack the fleeing German troops in the open country beyond.

[parkavenuearmory]

Tracking the Regiment: In late September 1918 the men of the Seventh Regiment joined Allied forces at The Hindenburg Line—a well-planned German defensive position—in an effort to attack the stronghold at a key structural vulnerability near the St-Quentin Canal. Over several days, the men moved toward the front by boxcar and on foot, where they encountered a ravaged landscape that was described as “hideous indeed to behold” and marked by countless white crosses where Australian troops ahead of them had fallen. As they inched closer to the front, artillery fire from both sides grew more and more intense until it became one long, drawn-out roar. Wrote a soldier one night, “The guns of both sides seemed to spit hate…with a vengeance.” With British troops to their left and American, Australian, and French armies stretching nearly 40 miles to their right, the men readied themselves for coordinated a pre-dawn attack beginning September 29.

[parkavenuearmory]

A conversation with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker about The Six Brandenburg Concertos

“Bach's musical oeuvre has always been a guiding light for me, from the very beginning of my career”—Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker

Read an interview with choreographer Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker ahead of the North American premiere of The Six Brandenburg Concertos at Park Avenue Armory, October 1–7.

Read the interview.

Get Tickets: bit.ly/PAABrandenburg

Photos by Anne van Aerschot

[parkavenuearmory]

Early in September 1918, while encamped near the town of Watou, Belgium, the 107th had a distinguished and honored visitor, the painter John Singer Sargent. “He wore the uniform of a British officer and looked a bit stouter and older than I expected he would from his portraits,” wrote Capt. Claude Leland of Company I. He made sketches of General O’Ryan and other Americans and even proposed to do a portrait of Captain Raphael Egan (who received citations for conspicuous courage and exceptional ability for his actions just the week before on the front line) but Sargent was pulled away to continue his travels before he could begin. 

Learn more about Sargent’s visits to the front and his resulting painting Gassed (1919) on The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Now at the Met blog.

[parkavenuearmory]

In August 1918, the 107th Infantry concluded its rifles and maneuvers training near Saint-Omer, France and began its approach toward the front line in Belgium. One member of Company I captured the sense of foreboding among the troops, noting:

“No matter how much back-area bombing and long-range shelling a man had been through, the first time we went to the front line trenches in Belgium he made his will, wrote home for the last time, and prepared to be ‘bumped off.’”

Moving in small groups under the cover of night, the Infantry reached a section of the front line opposite Mount Kemmel between Ypres, Belgium, and Lille, France. Enemy shells shrieked and exploded ahead of them and the sharp staccato of machine guns grew louder as they inched forward. The regiment began to suffer casualties immediately, losing troops daily over the course of the two weeks they were stationed there.

The above photograph shows the conditions of a town near the front line. A member of the 107th Infantry depicted trench conditions in the above drawing, titled “In the trenches.” 

[parkavenuearmory]

Tracking the Regiment: In July 1918, the 107th Infantry was assigned to the Second British Army and deployed in reserve positions behind the front line from Ypres to Scherpenberg. They underwent more training, dug trenches and went on reconnaissance scouting missions. Intelligence reports showed that Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria’s troops were primed for a grand offensive. This entire area was subjected to constant shelling and men in the troops were laying wagers that they would be on the front line within the next two weeks. They were right. Stay tuned for more posts commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Seventh Regiment’s involvement in WWI throughout the coming months, and look for posts tagged #107NYCentennial and #WWICC. 

[parkavenuearmory]

Happy Independence Day! Tracking the Regiment: After spending the month of June 1918 training for battle under the tutelage of British officers, the 107th Infantry began moving slowly across northern France toward the front in Belgium. They spent July 4th in the small town of Buysscheure, France (pop. 670) where they relaxed, the band played music and they had friendly boxing bouts and ball games until a passing German air squadron sent everyone scrambling for cover. The enemy was not supposed to know that the Americans were in the region.

[parkavenuearmory]

Let it all go and learn "The Let Go" line dance! Choreographed by Francesca Harper specifically for Nick Cave's "The Let Go" at Park Avenue Armory June 7–July 1, 2018.

[parkavenuearmory]

The Let Go Photo Contest: Share the Movement

Share your photos and videos of Nick Cave's The Let Go for a chance to be featured on the Armory's social channels and to win two free tickets to an upcoming Armory production.

Contest Rules and Entry Information

Use the hashtag #PAALetGo and tag @ParkAveArmory on Instagram and Twitter to submit your creations for consideration. Let go of your frustrations and speak your mind by posting photos, videos, and animations of your The Let Go experience and let us know what the work means to you. Creativity and self-expression are highly encouraged.

Weekly Winners and Grand Prize Selection

Each week beginning June 12, a roundup of the week's best posts will be shared on the Armory's social channels. On Thursday, July 5, one grand prize winner will be selected from the group of weekly winners to receive two free tickets to William Kentridge's processional musical journey, The Head and The Load, making its North American premiere at the Armory this December.

The grand prize winner will be contacted via Instagram, Twitter, or email and will have 3 days to claim their prize. If the prize is not claimed, another winner will be selected. Tickets can be reserved for any date of your choosing from December 4-15, 2018 and are subject to availability. Transportation and/or accommodations are not included.

For questions or additional information, please email [email protected]

[parkavenuearmory]

Today we honor all the men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice during their service in the United States Armed Forces. In this centennial year of the Seventh Regiment’s participation in #WWI, we salute the 580 men of the 107th who were killed in action or died of wounds or disease in “The Great War.”

[parkavenuearmory]

Who led the men of the 107th to World War I? It was Colonel Willard C. Fisk. He was a native New Yorker who studied law at Columbia University. As a successful lawyer he also became involved in politics in New York and New Jersey and served as an officer of the State Democratic Committee of New Jersey. He joined the 7th Regiment in 1874 and quickly rose in rank until he was unanimously voted to Colonel in 1916. He led the Regiment on the Mexican Border deployment in 1916 and then led the 107th Infantry Regiment to France in 1918. Fisk served in France alongside his son, who tragically lost his life in battle. Colonel Fisk's portrait hangs in the Armory's restored Board of Officers Room.

[parkavenuearmory]

One hundred years ago today—and eight months after marching out of Park Avenue Armory to begin training for war—the men of the Seventh Regiment finally shipped off for France on May 9, 1918. The 2,995 men of the 107th Infantry Division boarded the USS Antigone and USS Susquehanna (pictured) bound for the port city of Brest, France, where they would arrive on May 23. As the Regiment's participation in #WWI increases over the coming months, we'll be sharing more insights into the identity, activity, and hardships of the men to commemorate the centennial anniversary of these pivotal events in the Regiment's history.

[parkavenuearmory]

#ThrowbackThursday: The Armory's theater roots run deep. As part of our ongoing series tracking the Seventh Regiment's participation in #WWI, check out this cast photo from the 1918 production of "You Know Me, Al" an entirely original musical with music, book, lyrics and a cast of male and female roles produced and played by the men of 27th Infantry Division of the Army National Guard. Created to distract from the tedium and hardships of training, the production first ran at Fort Wadsworth in Spartanburg, S.C., followed by a run at New York's Lexington Theatre in April, where it was staged to raise money and new recruits before the Division shipped off to France. The play was an instant hit, selling out nearly every performance, and it received a glowing review in The New York Times. After an extended run, the play was seen by an audience of more than 21,500 and netted $25,000 (worth almost $372,000 today!) with the final performance taking place at Washington, D.C.'s Belasco Theatre. Look for more posts tagged #107NYCentennial and #WWICC as we track the regiment on their journey from camp to the trenches throughout the year.

[parkavenuearmory]

For International Women's Day we’re honoring contributions of the women of the Seventh Regiment—wives, mothers, sisters, and friends—during World War I. While the men of the Regiment were away training and preparing for battle, the women in New York mobilized to support the troops by joining groups like the Women's Auxiliary Club and Squad Sisters Association. By March of 1918, the Women's Auxiliary had 725 members and a dedicated room in the Armory for their work, which included knitting and shipping thousands of sweaters, socks, and caps to the troops down South. The Squad Sisters, pictured above, were based in the Hotel McAlpin on Herald Square where they would write letters and assemble small gift packages, which the men said were "a slice of joy to blot out thoughts of mud...'cooties,' and a thousand and one other glooms" at camp. To learn more about the Seventh Regiment's involvement in WWI, look for posts tagged #107NYCentennial as we commemorate the 100-year anniversary of America's involvement in the war throughout the year.

[parkavenuearmory]

Happy Presidents' Day! With presidential portraits recently making headlines, you might be surprised to learn that the Armory owns several likenesses of our nation's Commanders in Chief, including this rare but familiar-looking example of George Washington created by Rembrandt Peale. Peale was one of the few artists to paint the president from life, first in 1795. This version, known as the "Patriae Pater" (Father of the Country), was created in 1823 after Washington's death and was presented to the Regiment in 1861 after being purchased for $500 from Peale's estate. The painting is currently being cleaned and repaired for minor surface cracking. Be sure to stop by the Colonels Room next time you're at the Armory to take a look!