The President and Mrs. Wilson, Miss Wilson, the King and Queen of Belgium at University of Louvain

The President and Mrs. Wilson, Miss Wilson, the King and Queen of Belgium at University of Louvain

At the University of Louvain

18767

Towards the close of June, 1919, President Wilson and Mrs. Wilson left Paris to visit Belgium. King Albert and Queen Elizabeth met them at Adinkerke and the party proceeded to Brussels by automobile. Later, a visit was made to the devastated regions around Charleroi and nearby places, among others Louvain. Before us, within the scarred and blackened walls of the University of Louvain, deliberately and unnecessarily destroyed by the Germans in the early months of the war, stands President Wilson reading an address. On his right is the Queen of Belgium, in a simple white dress, and to her right Miss Wilson. At the near side of the platform we see Mrs. Wilson, in a rich blue dress, and between her and the President we can distinguish the manly figure of the King of Belgium. Potted plants and shrubs have been hastily arranged in the rear of the simple platform, to shut off the view of bare, smoke-blackened walls, all that is left of this once splendid university with its priceless treasures of books and manuscripts. Throughout the President's brief trip he was greeted by the grateful plaudits of the Belgian people. For Belgium knows that America is her friend, in deed and in word. "Vive l'Amerique !" resounded from the lips of children excused from school as the distinguished party passed through the streets of cities not entirely demolished. But it was not through ordered streets and welcoming citizens that most of the trip was made, it was through devastation and desolation indescribable. Even forests had been shot away. The Angel of Death seemed to have blasted the land.

1 stereograph : b&w

1 gelatine silver print stereograph (8 x 15 cm) mounted on card (9 x 18 cm)

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