Elizabeth Navas purchased this drawing by Anne Poor, daughter of the Kansas-born artist Henry Varnum Poor, because of the timeliness of the subject: A World War II battle scene. Poor responded to Mrs. Navas’s request for a written statement on the drawing with the following letter:

“This drawing of the unloading of wounded from an airplane was made from observation at Mitchell Field during the Battle of the Bulge where loads of severe casualties were being flown directly to the U.S. The planes often arrived at night and were met by hospital personnel and Red Cross. In this drawing I tried to convey a sense of the mystery and awe which are tangibly present on the scene where people are caring for and nursing the wounded. I felt that the fleeting quality that artificial light has as it falls on forms seen in and out of the half shadow of a dusky evening over a flying field was particularly expressive of this mystery. I wanted to express by subtlety of movement, postures, and understatement, an awareness of the immensity of the moment, the grave condition of the patient, the pity, love, and concern of each person in the scene for the figure in white.”