A World-Class Collection
The National World War I Museum uses its comprehensive, world-class historical collections and exhibitions to inspire its strategic efforts in the areas of exhibition, education, research and interpretation.
The founders of the National World War I Museum, originally known as the Liberty Memorial Museum, began collecting in 1920 and established professional museum policies and procedures in the 1970s. In the twenty-first century the Museum directed its pro-active collecting to complement the facility’s massive facility expansion and new national stature. As a result of these decades of concentrated effort, the quantity and quality of our collections, as well as the state-of-the-art exhibitions that draw on these collections, are truly astounding. 
The Museum collections and exhibitions tell more than an American story. They cover the entire war from the first shots in 1914 to the last attempts at peace in 1919. All the belligerent nations involved, reflecting both the battlefield and the home front, are represented.
We collect the common item carried by the soldier in the field, as well as the rare treasure of national significance. We hold over 55,000 items in our museum, library, and archival collections. As a national museum mandated to preserve the vast history of World War I, its participants, and this National Historic Landmark, we are still collecting.
To read more about donating an artifact to the Museum, click here.
Recent Acquisition Highlights
Extraordinary Historical Collection Donated to National World War I Museum
Click here to read about the largest number of historical objects given by a donor in Museum’s 89-Year history.
|
|
Imperial German Navy uniform
The first German Navy uniform in the museum collection was worn by Upper Seaman J. Mohr. It consists of several items: the dark blue wool tunic with Mohr’s identity number and date of enlistment stamped inside and the rank sleeve insignia is for Ober Matrosen (upper seaman); a white cotton over shirt, trousers and black tie; his blue wool round cap with a tally for His Majesty’s Reserve, dated inside 1915; and studio photograph with naval scenes in the background.
|
|
Princess Mary Christmas Box, 1914
In November 1914, England’s Princess Mary led the effort to provide “everyone who would be wearing the King’s uniform on Christmas Day 1914 with a gift from the nation.” The brass boxes contained smokes, candy, pencils, stationary and a photograph of Princess Mary, the 17 year old daughter of King George V. A total of 2,504,677 Princess Mary boxes were made. The two cigarette packets here are unopened and still have the On Active Service bands intact. |
| Oval Portrait of African American driver for the Women's Motor Corps
African American women worked with the U.S. Department of Labor, the national Bureau of War Risk Insurance, the Women's Motor Corps, nation-wide war fund drives, the War Camp Community Service, war-time National Food Administration, The Young Women's Christian Association, and as American Red Cross Nurses and Canteen Workers. They were employed in a number of war industries, including munitions production. There were also the Organized Women Knitters and the Circle of Negro War Relief. |
|
|
|
Steel Helmet
Steel helmet, U.S., Model 1917, with post-war painted camouflage and insignia of the 88th Division (black four-leaf clover) from the service of Herbert Omen Wood, Co. C, 313th Field Signal Battalion, 88th Division, AEF:
During the war, the steel helmets worn by the Doughboys were unadorned. Unit insignia were the first objects painted on helmets, but this was rare before the cessation of hostilities due to the concern that the enemy would gain information from seeing the insignia. But after the guns were silenced, the Doughboy artists got busy with painted insignia, itinerary, maps, pseudo-camouflage, and battle scenes. Some painted helmets were done on commission for American soldiers by German prisoners of war.
|
|
|
The "Lost Battalion"
The service record book of 1st Lieutenant Maurice V. Griffin contains his recollection as a survivor of the “Lost Battalion.” The donation also includes a rare, autographed, limited edition of The Lost Battalion by Thomas M. Johnson and Fletcher Pratt (1938). |