Two adults and four children gather around glass museum cases in a gallery

Main Gallery

Explore WWI through the stories of those who lived it
Main Gallery

Included with your General Admission ticket, the Main Gallery of the National WWI Museum and Memorial holds the permanent exhibition, “The World War, 1914-1919.”

Through first-hand accounts, engaging exhibits and informative films, the Main Gallery guides visitors through a comprehensive journey of the Great War. Diverse collections from all the belligerent nations help tell the story of this cataclysmic event of the 20th century.

Modern photo of an expansive museum gallery filled with WWI artillery and glass cases of artifacts

Glass Bridge and Poppy Field

Cross the Paul Sunderland Glass Bridge to get to the entrance of the Main Gallery, walking over a poppy field in “No Man’s Land.” The poppy field is a memorial to the lives of those who died as a direct result of WWI: each of the 9,000 poppies represents 1,000 deaths, totaling 9 million lives lost.

Why poppies?

Glass bridge leading towards a museum gallery entrance
A small field of artificial poppies under a glass bridge

Into the Trenches

Step inside five different life-size trench settings, getting a glimpse into how soldiers lived, passed the time, fought and died in the sprawling trench networks that crisscrossed Europe. Each lifelike figure was created using 3D scans of real people.

Learn more about trench warfare

Modern photograph of a museum exhibit recreating a British WWI trench. A soldier mannequin peers through a trench periscope while another soldier mannequin readies to throw a grenade.
A museum guest leans into a trench display depicting a life-size mannequin of a WWI soldier charging into a trench on the attack

Chronology Wall

Follow the timeline of World War I as it unfolds along the detailed Chronology Wall, which anchors the entire Main Gallery and places each exhibit in historical context.

Online interactive timeline

Museum gallery with a curving wall covered in text and images
Two museum guests read from a large written display on a gallery wall

Kemper Horizon Theater

Watch how a series of dramatic events pulled the U.S. into the war in early 1917. Stark lighting flashes over a diorama of mud-covered soldiers while archival footage plays across the multi-story screen.

Learn more about the U.S. entering the war

Life-size models of WWI soldiers trudge across a destroyed diorama landscape
Museum guests watch a large video projected onto a screen over a battlescape diorama

Renault FT-17 Tank

Inspect the battle damage on a French Renault FT-17 tank that was deployed in France until a German shell disabled it in 1918. At two interactive stations, get closer with detailed 3D models that allow viewing from all angles and even inside.

A small armored tank in a museum exhibit
Modern photograph of a young white girl wearing a pink sweater about to press a button on an interactive display depicting a WWI tank

Interactive Tables

Send a coded message by pigeon, dodge German submarines and more at four interactive touch tables. Learn about frontline communication, wartime convoys, objects from empires and WWI aircraft.

Computer rendering of a variety of WWI-era aircraft flying over clouds and landscapes
Two Black girls swipe around an interactive table

Casualties

Peek into the workings of a field hospital set up in a bombed-out church, witnessing the chaos and realities of battlefield medicine during WWI. Nurses and medics work on soldiers wounded in body and spirit by shells, bullets and poison gas.

Museum guests look at an exhibit of a bombed-out church with life-size mannequins inside depicting nurses and medics taking care of wounded soldiers
Life-size mannequins depicting a WWI nurse leading a line of WWI soldiers with bandages over their eyes

Encounters

Meet 16 individuals from WWI and hear their intimate first-hand accounts crafted from diaries, letters and photos. These real people from history – soldiers, nurses, factory workers, dissenters and more – are brought to life with actors and state-of-the-art projection technology.

Explore Encounters

A museum guest watches a life-size video projection of a Black WWI soldier
Guests watching a video screen depicting a white soldier standing in a bombed-out cathedral

Epilogue

Reflect on the ongoing impacts and challenges set off by the events of WWI, surrounded on three sides by floor-to-ceiling imagery, sounds and music.

Two guests sit on a bench surrounded by a video projection of a battlefield on three walls

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