Photograph of boxcar from French "Merci train," a gift from France to the United States in grateful recognition of U.S. aid to France after World War II.
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Background
The idea to send a "thank you" gift to the United States for the $40 million in food and other supplies sent to France and Italy in 1947 came from a French railroad worker and World War II veteran named Andre Picard.[1] Donations for the Merci Train came from over six million citizens of France and Italy in the form of dolls, statues, clothes, ornamental objects, furniture, and even a Legion of Honour medal purported to have belonged to Napoleon.[2]
The boxcars were "forty-and-eights" used during both world wars. The term refers to the cars' carrying capacity, said to be 40 men or eight horses.[4] Built starting in the 1870s as regular freight boxcars, they were originally used in military service by the French army in both World Wars, and then later used by the German occupation in World War II and finally by the Allied liberators.
In 1949, France sent 49 of those boxcars to the United States (one for each state and the Territory of Hawaii) laden with various treasures, as a show of gratitude for the liberation of France. This train was called the Merci Train, and was sent in response to trains full (over 700 boxcars) of supplies known as the Friendship Train sent by the American people to France in 1947. Each of the Merci Train boxcars carried five tons of gifts, all of which were donated by private citizens.[5]
The Train and all 49 cars arrived aboard the Magellan on February 2, 1949, with over 25,000 onlookers in attendance. On the side of the gift-laden French freighter was painted, "MERCI AMERICA".[5] Immediately the trains were distributed amongst the states.
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Boxcars
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Perspective
The Merci Train boxcars were opened and turned into travelling exhibits before each state committee distributed the entire contents. The 43 surviving boxcars are on public display within each state as follows:
partially scrapped in 1951, remainder converted to shed and destroyed in 1961. The Nebraska Historical Society has a collection of French gifts from the boxcar.[26]
Had been missing since 1958, with unverified claims that it had been scrapped, the boxcar was rediscovered in Tennessee by the National World War I Museum and Memorial in 1993, and placed in storage in Kansas City, Missouri. The car was confirmed as the New Jersey boxcar in 2024, and donated to the United Railroad Historical Society of New Jersey, who plans to restore it at their Boonton yard.[29] The New Jersey Museum has a collection of French gifts from the boxcar.[30]
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