French Gratitude Train Car in Montgomery, 1949

An Alabama Bureau of Publicity and Information photograph of Alabamians gathered to see the Gratitude Train (also called Merci Train) in front of the Capitol in Montgomery in May 1949. France sent 49 such trains to the U.S.—one for each state and another to be shared by Hawaii and the District of Columbia—in gratitude for boxcars of aid sent by Americans following World War II. Today the is displayed at the Paul Bolden Veterans Memorial Museum in Huntsville.