Back when it used to mean something.

A World War 1 photo (nabbed from prosoundweb.com).

And it still means something!

Just Wow.

I never had heard of this being done in the 1920's. Thanks for the link!

You can still make out individuals half way up the statue, a few hundred at most. I say air-brush, the way pre-Photoshop!

This was photographed from a tower at an angle. There are 12,000 men in the flame, and only about 2,000 in the whole body. If it were photographed from directly above, it would look totally weird, but the perspective works for the wight of the tower used by the photographer.

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from snopes (via DUer progressoid):

On a stifling July day in 1918, 18,000 officers and soldiers posed as Lady Liberty on the parade (drill) grounds at Camp Dodge, Des Moines, IA. According to a July 3, 1986, story in the Fort Dodge Messenger, many men, dressed in woolen uniforms, fainted as the temperature neared 105 degrees. The photo, taken from the top of a specially constructed tower by a Chicago photography studio, Mole & Thomas, was intended to help promote the sale of war bonds but was never used.

The design for the living picture was laid out at the drill ground at Camp Dodge, situated in the beautiful valley of the Des Moines River. Thousands of yards of white tape were fastened to the ground and formed the outlines on which 18,000 officers and men marched to their respective positions.

In this body of soldiers are any hundreds of men of foreign birth - born of parents whose first impression of the Land of Freedom and Promise was of the world's greatest colossus standing with beacon light at the portal of a nation of free people, holding aloft a torch symbolic of the light of liberty which the statue represents. Side by side with native sons these men, with unstinted patriotism, now offer to sacrifice not only their liberty but even life itself for our beloved country.

The day on which the photograph was taken was extremely hot and the heat was intensified by the mass formation of men. The dimensions of the platting for the picture seem astonishing. The camera was placed on a high tower. From the position nearest the camera occupied by Colonel Newman and his staff, to the last man at the top of the torch as platted on the ground was 1,235 feet, or approximately a quarter of a mile. The appended figures will give an adequate idea of the distorted proportions of the actual ground measurements for this photograph:

Incredible as it may seem there are twice the number of men in the flame of the torch as in the whole remaining design, while there are eight times as many men in the arm, torch and flame as in all the rest of the figure. It will be noted that the right thumb is five feet longer than the left hand, while the right arm, torch and flame is eight times the length of the body.

Base to shoulder: 150 feet.
Right arm: 340 feet.
Widest part of arm holding torch: 12-1/2 feet.
Right thumb: 35 feet.
Thickest part of body: 29 feet.
Left hand (length): 30 feet.
Tablet in left hand: 27 feet.
Face: 60 feet.
Nose: 21 feet.
Longest spike of head piece: 70 feet.
Flame on torch.: 600 feet.
Torch and flame combined: 980 feet.

Number of men in flame of torch: 12,000
Number of men in torch: 2,800
Number of men in right arm: 1,200
Number of men in body, head and balance of figure only: 2,000
Total: 18,000

See more at the Iowa National Guard website: http://www.iowanationalguard.com/Museum/CDStory/CDstory...

I consider that I stand corrected. The clarity along the horizon and huge field still look air-brushed to me though.

I'm glad that this was of interest. Thanks for the in-depth information regarding it.