“the returning soldiers marched up the chief highway behind the strump of drums and the joyous, resonant wind of the brasses”

Parades of returning WWI soldiers were common between December 1918 and throughout 1919. In New York the path often moved up Fifth Avenue. Special arches were constructed specifically for the occasion. These parades marked everything from the return of Gen. John Pershing, commander-in-chief of the American Expeditionary Force, and the celebration of the 369th infantry, America’s first African-American regiment with the AEF.