Honor the Fallen: portraits and remembrance

Honor the Fallen

In its twentieth-anniversary retrospective, the Gramercy Park Block Association recalled projects initiated by Nicholas Cohen, a former Army officer, with support from Neighbors Helping Neighbors.

Honor the Fallen used photographs and short biographies to remember American service members killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. The display traveled beyond Gramercy; the retrospective records appearances in Union Square and at Columbia University in 2004. Its focus was the individual life behind each loss.

2004

A memorial in public space

The contemporary reports identify Nicholas Benjamin Cohen as the founder of Honor the Fallen. Its first display took place in Union Square on September 10, 2004. Photographs and brief biographies placed individual lives before people passing through the square.

Cohen credited Arlene Harrison with helping raise funds and obtain permits, and Kathleen Scupp with the installation. The independent memorial brought together volunteers across political viewpoints. Later that autumn, it was shown at Wesleyan and at Columbia, where student groups from different political affiliations helped arrange the Veterans Day display.

A changing record of loss

The archive follows the display through Thanksgiving and Christmas 2004. Officers from the 13th Precinct visited on Thanksgiving; the December report photographed volunteers gathered around the memorial.

Portrait totals changed as the conflict continued; the display kept attention on individual lives and families.

Letters from home

A separate partnership with Bryn Mawr College connected a pen-pal and care-package project with troops serving in Afghanistan. The Block Association’s 2014 account reported more than 2,000 letters of support as well as packages.

The memorial and correspondence projects offered different forms of attention: remembrance for those who had died, and a personal connection for people serving far from home.