“These people died overseas but the monuments are local,” he said. “They had tremendous emotional power, especially in the decade following the war — most people would’ve known somebody from the neighborhood who was lost. But monuments outlast the people who commission them and outlast the deceased and their bereaved families. The monuments take on some other kind of life.”

A few notable monuments:

“Dawn of Glory” in Highland Park in Brooklyn is “a male nude figure representing the soul of the deceased soldier going to the afterlife and being received in a beatific light, yet it’s a very sensual piece,” Mr. Kuhn said.

The nine “doughboy” statues, including those in Abingdon Square in the West Village and Woodside in Queens, are “everyman,” Mr. Kuhn said. “They’re not the generals; they are the infantrymen who fought on the front lines. There’s a wide range of mood and psychology. Some are pensive; some are aggressive, marching into battle; there’s a macho quality to some of them while others are much more humble, where the weight of the war and its implications of loss are being observed.”

The Pleasant Plains Memorial on Staten Island is “not a doughboy, but a female victory figure,” Mr. Kuhn said. “Just like the men symbolize virility, female figures symbolize sacrifice, virtue and glory.”

You can learn more about the World War I memorials around the city, and how local parks figured into the war effort, at “Over Here,” an exhibition at the Arsenal in Central Park through Nov. 24. (Look out for the High Bridge doughboy in the lobby.) The gallery is closed on Friday in observance of Veterans Day, but opens on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.