Explore ‘The Great War’ at National WWI Museum

By Betsa Marsh

It was, of course, the War to End All Wars, and we know how well humankind has fulfilled that prophecy since World War I engulfed the globe in 1914-1919.

This Sunday will be the 90th anniversary of the Treaty of Versailles, the formal document that ended the war. Maybe the best place to commemorate that day is the National World War I Museum in Kansas City.

The nation’s official WWI museum is less than three years old, but it’s retrofitted into the Liberty Memorial that grew directly out of the war. In 1919, Kansas City residents raised more than $2.5 million in 10 days, and five years later, President Calvin Coolidge delivered the dedication speech, saying “the magnitude of this memorial, and the broad base of popular support on which it rests, can scarcely fail to excite national wonder and admiration.”

Dreamers of the Liberty Memorial began collecting in 1918, and those original posters still stop you in your tracks today. Curators and donors have been adding to the collection ever since.

This can be an overwhelming museum, with a vast circular display of artifacts, interspersed with movie theaters and a diorama that jars you with shell blasts and blinding light. Then there are the two towers adjoining the central museum that have their own stories to tell of regiments and individuals soldiers.

Don’t miss the mural painted after the Liberty Memorial dedication on Nov. 1, 1921. A docent will point out that this was the only time these WWI leaders were together at one place: Lieutenant General Baron Jacques of Belgium; General Armando Diaz of Italy; Marshal Ferdinand Foch of France; General John J. Pershing of the United States; and Admiral David Beatty of Great Britain.

The dedication, and the opening of the National World War I Museum 85 years later, were both grand events with thousands of people ringing the column. But one of the most moving moments for me was just walking across the glass bridge deep into the heart of museum, above a field of 9,000 red poppies–each represents 1,000 people killed in battle.

 

Climb to the top of the towers for a fabulous view of downtown KC. Betsa Marsh photos