The WAR ON TERRORISM has been viewed by the public in many different mediums, but rarely has it had the opportunity to see a soldier-artists’ rendition of the conflict, one that provides a unique and personal interpretation of how the experience can be depicted.

The artwork included in this online book on the WAR ON TERRORISM provides a visual history from September 11, 2001 to the present. The art was created by soldier-artists assigned to the Army Staff Artist Program under the aupises of the U.S. Army Center of Military History, Museum Division, in Washington, DC, and the Army Reserves and National Guard. These soldier-artists continue a rich tradition of documenting the lives of American soldiers at war, in training, and in a variety of humanitarian missions.

The Army’s art collection includes art from the mid-nineteenth century on, but it was not until World War I that the service specifically commissioned and deployed eight artists into the Corps of Engineers to record the activities of the American Expeditionary Forces in France. At the conclusion of the war, as the Army was unable to provide care and storage for the art due to the rapid demobilization, the artwork was given to the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of American History.

* View this publication online.