“The World War, 1914-1919”
At the beginning of the 20th century a conflict erupted in Europe that rapidly escalated into a war of unprecedented destruction and bloodshed. About 65 million soldiers fought, and over 9 million of them died. The war involved 36 countries around the world, including the United States, which sent 2 million men and women overseas. Although the guns fell silent on November 11, 1918, peace did not officially come until the following year. 
The Museum is dedicated to sharing the stories of those who experienced this global disaster, the consequences of which are still with us.
The two original museum buildings, opened in 1926, provide a modest 5,000 square feet of gallery space. Our modern, expanded, underground exhibit space of 32,000 square feet opened to the public on December 1, 2006, and holds the permanent exhibition, “The World War, 1914-1919,” a comprehensive presentation about the history of the war. Together about 8% of the collections are on exhibit, with virtually all of the large objects on display.
The design for the federally-designated National World War I Museum was executed through a collaboration of the museum staff, Ralph Appelbaum Associates of New York, and a host of technical advisors and historical consultants. The exhibitions have been designed to provide a variety of experiences for the casual visitor, scheduled school groups and scholars.
The response to the exhibition by the public has been overwhelming, with many repeat visitors and extremely positive feedback from exit surveys. Noted World War I scholars such as Sir John Keegan and Sir Martin Gilbert have been effusive in their praise of the exhibition’s content, historiography, and presentation. It has been featured on national television news broadcasts, in national publications like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today, and Turner Classic Movies.
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Visitors cross a Western Front poppy field to enter the Museum.
Each of the 9,000 poppies represents a thousand combatant deaths, a total of nine million. |
| Diverse collections from all the belligerents help tell the story of this cataclysmic event of the 20th century. For example, the “No Man’s Land” in the Horizon Theater incorporates a British patrol across a barren landscape littered with actual objects a level below the visitor. |
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Many objects were chosen for the exhibition particularly for their appeal to a variety of visitors, such as a quilt made by a community group to honor soldiers from that area, a German child’s play uniform that is a small-scale version of that worn by his soldier father, an American nurse’s personal letters describing life at the front, a Medal of Honor illustrating the meaning of a hero, and an all-original Model 1917 Harley Davidson motorcycle. |
| Exhibits offer insight on the beginnings of the war and its global nature – how and why countries went to war, how entire societies mobilized, and how the war affected civilians as well as military participants. |
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The Big Guns provide the visitor with the up-close size and scale of the modern weapons that dominated the battlefield. Associated case displays give more on the history and use of each gun.
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A series of Trenches offers ground-level views into six different trench scenes with actual objects in place, recorded statements from the writings of participants from the period, and relevant ambient sounds.
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Animated Battle Maps present major battles and military campaigns in their chronological order, but in a moving, highly colorful manner that draw the visitor into the planning and execution of the battles.
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Interactive tables allow visitors with light pens to create their own patriotic poster, to see the inner workings of a Lewis machine gun, or to determine the uses of camouflage, among many engaging activities for the individual.
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The Chronology Walls illustrate the daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly activities of the war through dated events, photographs, objects, documents, and period silent movies. Each panel contains first-person passages from the writings of actual participants. |
The walk-through Crater illustrates the devastating effects when a French farmhouse is struck by a 17-inch howitzer shell.
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A French-made Renault FT-17 tank, the type used by the American army, dominates the portion of the gallery devoted to the American experience in World War I. A gaping hole in its flank, the result from being knocked out by a German shell, testifies to its battlefield heritage. |
Three dramatic movies provide the narrative foundation for the exhibition. Click on the name for a transcript of a movie.
A World on the Edge (Introductory movie)
Horizon Theater
Peace? (Conclusion)
Memory Hall
Memory Hall looks much as it did when the Liberty Memorial opened in 1926. The interior, initially intended to be a meeting room for “patriotic societies,” is ornately adorned with impressive murals, wooden paneling, and a gold-star decorated ceiling. Other distinctive features grace this magnificent memorial:
• In 1926 D. Putnam Brinley painted a series of maps depicting all the spheres of action of the American Army and Navy in foreign countries.
• On the east wall, above the maps, is the 1926 mural by Jules Guerin that portrays a seated figure of Victory – “In Memoriam 1914-1918.” 
• On the west wall is the 1950 mural “Dedication of the Memorial Site, November 1, 1921,” by Daniel MacMorris, a noted Kansas City artist. The work features portraits of the five Allied leaders who were present on that special occasion. MacMorris also painted a moving series of three murals on the south wall devoted to the women of World War I and their sacrifices.
• At the west end of Memory Hall, flanking the entrance, are four bronze tablets with the names of the 441 Kansas City citizens who died in World War I. Above each inscription is the quote “We Are the Dead,” taken from the famous poem “In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae. Click here to see a listing the 441 names in Memory Hall.
• The Pantheon de la Guerre runs the length of the north wall. This surviving, 69-foot portion of a monumental French painting dramatically depicts the allied nations of World War I. The largest object in the Museum collections, this mural was dedicated in 1959 and the subject of its own book in 2006.
A special exhibition from a recent acquisition to the museum collection is now open in Memory Hall: Calendar of the War: Vintage Prints by René Georges Hermann-Paul.
The title of the exhibition comes from the artist himself. The exhibition features twelve images from the first calendar year of the war starting in August 1914 and additional images up to May 1916. René Georges Hermann-Paul, a French artist whose career started in the 1880s, graphically captured the wide variety of images, events, and people of the World War.
The artist created his first woodcuts during this period, works in both black-and-white and color. He carved the woodblocks and supervised the hand coloring. The medium helped accentuate the sparse, almost machine-like style and simplified forms that characterized his illustrations.
Exhibit Hall
From 1926 to 2006 Exhibit Hall, the west building, served as the main museum gallery of the Liberty Memorial. With the opening of the expanded museum and its new galleries, Exhibit Hall now serves as space for special, limited-run museum exhibitions. This gives the National World War I Museum the opportunity to present changing exhibitions, often drawing on its comprehensive, world-class historical collections.
Unique features permanently adorn the building’s interior:
• The bronze entrance doors are the main decorative architectural features of the room. A panel above the door is elegantly inscribed with excerpts from the Old Testament books of the Bible (“lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen”).
• On the east wall is a surviving section of the Pantheon de la Guerre mural, originally painted in 1914-1918 and installed in 1957-1959. The figure of Victory stands in front of a “temple of glory,” surrounded by thousands of French heroes. 
• The north and south walls display the colorful flags of the twenty-two allied nations of World War I, arranged in the order in which each country entered the conflict.