The 52,000 gifts of the Gratitude Train: objects, emotions and Franco–American relations after the Second World War

Abstract

The Gratitude Train was sent from France to America in 1949. Conceived as a ‘thank you’ for American help during and after the world wars, it contained 52,000 personal objects chosen and donated by French people who wanted to express their gratitude to Americans. The objects were divided between forty-nine boxcars, and each state received one of these boxcars containing approximately 1000 objects. What where these objects? Who sent them? Why have they been forgotten? Why do they matter? This article is interested not only in the story of the Gratitude Train, but in the stories within the objects themselves. By closely analysing a porcelain dog, a silver spoon and a painting, it traces the longer life biographies and trajectories of these objects and uncovers a range of both intended and unintended emotions as well as meanings, be they collective or individual. The unique and almost completely unknown Gratitude Train collection offers valuable inroads into our understanding of the relationship between objects, emotions and international relations, as well as into the materiality of gratitude at the heart of the age of extremes.