Musée de la Grande Guerre

The American Field Service (AFS) originated as the Transportation Department in an auxiliary military hospital, located in the high school building of Lycée Pasteur in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Paris. This volunteer-run, civilian-financed American Ambulance Hospital opened its doors in September of 1914, shortly after the outbreak of World War I.  By the time the United States entered the war and militarized the AFS in late 1917, 2,500 men had served as AFS ambulance or camion drivers, participating in every major French battle and carrying more than 500,000 wounded. 

The photograph of an AFS World War I ambulance driver depicted above is now featured in the new permanent exhibition at the Musée de la Grande Guerre in Pays de Meaux, France.  The museum, located at the foot of the American Monument commemorating the 1914 and 1918 Battles of the Marne, contains one of the largest collections of World War I-related material in Europe.  Jean-François Copé, President of the Agglomeration Community of Pays de Meaux, inaugurated and officially opened the museum to the public on November 11, 2011, in the presence of the President of the Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy.  More information can be found in the English press file for the exhibition or on their Web site.

Photograph caption: AFS SSU 64 ambulance driver standing by an ambulance in the park of the AFS Headquarters at 22 Rue Raynouard.  Paris, Spring 1917. Photographer unknown.  This image (and any others on the website) cannot be reproduced without permission from the Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs.