Great Riding Tandem 1890

Charles B. Tripp, the armless man and Eli Bowen, the legless man, riding a tandem. 1890s

The Great Human Statue of Liberty

The Human Statue of Liberty. 18000 men were used for this photo! Iowa, 1918. The day on which the photograph was taken was extremely hot and the heat was intensified by the mass formation of men. The dimensions of the platting for the picture seem astonishing. The camera was placed on a high tower. From the position nearest the camera occupied by Colonel Newman and his staff, to the last man at the top of the torch as platted on the ground was 1,235 feet, or approximately a quarter of a mile. The appended figures will give an adequate idea of the distorted proportions of the actual ground measurements for this photograph:

Base to shoulder: 150 feet.

Right arm: 340 feet.

Widest part of arm holding torch: 12-1/2 feet.

Right thumb: 35 feet.

Thickest part of body: 29 feet.

Left hand (length): 30 feet.

Tablet in left hand: 27 feet.

Face: 60 feet.

Nose: 21 feet.

Longest spike of head piece: 70 feet.

Flame on torch.: 600 feet.

Torch and flame combined: 980 feet.

Number of men in flame of torch: 12,000

Number of men in torch: 2,800

Number of men in right arm: 1,200

Number of men in body, head and balance of figure only: 2,000

Total: 18,000