Photographs by Arthur S. Mole and John D. Thomas. Arthur S. Mole was a British-born commercial photographer who worked in Zion, Illinois. During and shortly after World War I, Mole traveled with his partner John D. Thomas from one military camp to another, posing thousands of soldiers to form gigantic patriotic symbols that they photographed from above. The formations depicted such images as the Liberty Bell, the Statue of Liberty, the Marine Corps emblem and a portrait of President Woodrow Wilson. The Wilson portrait, for example, was formed using 21,000 officers and men at Camp Sherman in Ohio and stretched over 700 feet. His "Human Liberty Bell" was composed from over 25,000 soldiers, arranged with Mole's characteristic attention to detail to even depict the crack in the bell. Mole and Thomas spent a week or more preparing for these immense works, which were taken from a 70 or 80 foot tower with an 11 by 14 inch view camera.
http://www.hammergallery.com/images/people...%20pictures.htm
https://www.georgeglazer.com/archives/print...olemarines.html
http://www.metmuseum.org/TOAH/HD/edph/ho_1987.1100.478.htm
http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/24/kaplan.php