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A polar bear advancing menacingly and protectively past a cross with a World War I helmet strapped to it. The sculpture is mounted upon a stepped, castellated base of polished Swedish black granite.

The monument commemorates the "Polar Bears," a group of soldiers from Michigan's 339th Infantry Regiment, who were sent to Archangel in northern Russia in 1918 at the end of World War I to prevent a German advance and to help reopen the Eastern Front. The soldiers fought Bolshevik revolutionaries for months in the frozen terrain after the Armistice ended fighting in France, arriving in September of 1918, and seeing their last fighting in April, 1919. Ninety-four soldiers were killed in action before the United States decided to withdraw. Public attention was drawn to the expedition in 1929 when two commissions, one appointed by the governor of Michigan and the other organized by the Veterans of Foreign Wars for the War Department, went to Archangel to recover the bodies of American soldiers killed in the expedition. Fifty-six of the eighty-six remains they found were returned for burial with honors around the Polar Bear Memorial, which was dedicated on Memorial Day, 1930. The memorial has been designated a Historic Site by the State of Michigan. The black granite base of the memorial symbolizes a fortress, and the cross and helmet denote war burial.

A standing figure of a soldier dressed in his khakis and wearing his helmet. He holds a rifle in front of him with both hands. The base of the sculpture is a shaft flanked by large paneled slabs inscribed with the names of Cecil County men who died in World War I. At the bottom of the base is a row of three steps. At each end of the base, on the front corners, are tapered shafts topped by electric lamps. On the front of the base is a carved eagle. 

A 93-foot-tall lighthouse-like structure atop Mount Greylock, the highest summit (3,505 feet) in Massachusetts. Eight narrow windows at the top of the shaft give views to the surrounding landscape from within an observatory that is reached by iron spiral staircases.  A semi-transparent glass globe sits atop a stem that emerges from the crown of the shaft. The crown is decorated with art deco eagles. The globe is lit at night, becoming a beacon.  

The exterior features a relief of the shield of the commonwealth of Massachusetts.  An art deco eagle in relief surmounts the inset entrance to the memorial.  

in the interior, the base features a domed chamber. The dome is decorated with art deco patterns made from small tiles.  A gold lantern hangs from the centerpoint of the dome.  Two narrow rows of a laurel leaf pattern surround the center.  Most of the dome is decorated with gold tesserae arranged in an overlapping pattern of half-discs.  Under this is a narrow band of blue tesserae with red borders; against the blue-patterned mosaic are ranged 48 white stars.  Below this are the interior inscriptions.  The floor is made of different-colored marble that form a star-like pattern.  In the center, inlaid in a circular black marble piece, is a bronze "US," with the letters surrounding a bronze relief of a lit torch.    

A corner marked with a sign that includes the deceased's name and a gold star.

LIEUTENANT J. HORACE FARNHAM, of the Canadian Royal Flying Corps, was killed in an aeroplane accident in England, April 25, 1918. Mr. Farnham enlisted in the Canadian Royal Flying Corps in August, 1917, and for a time was stationed at Toronto; later he was sent to Kelly Field, San Antonio, Tex., where he finished his training in aviation. He was then sent to England for intensive training, and specialization on war machines, at the R. F. C. camp at Yatesbury, Wiltshire. Mr. Farnham was at the time of his death a senior in the evening division of the College of Business Administration. He was one of the most popular men in college. The members of his class presented to the college a fine portrait of Mr. Farnham; this portrait has been placed on the walls of the college library.

Boston University World War Record (1921): 20-21.

http://archive.org/details/worldwarrecord00bost