The National World War I Museum and Memorial of the United States is located in Kansas City, Missouri. Opened to the public as the Liberty Memorial museum in 1926, it was designated in 2004 by the United States Congress as America's official museum dedicated to World War I. The Museum and Memorial are managed by a non-profit organization in cooperation with the Kansas City Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners. The museum reopened to the public in December 2006 with an expanded, award-winning facility to exhibit an artifact collection that began in 1920. The National World War I Museum tells the story of the Great War and related global events from their origins before 1914 through the 1918 armistice and 1919 Paris Peace Conference. Visitors enter the exhibit space within the 32,000-square-foot (3,000 m2) facility across a glass bridge above a field of 9,000 red poppies, each one representing 1,000 combatant deaths.
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Mission
The declared mission of the museum and memorial is to be "dedicated to remembering, interpreting and understanding the Great War and its enduring impact on the global community."
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History
Liberty Memorial Association
Soon after World War I ended, a group of 40 prominent Kansas City residents formed the Liberty Memorial Association (LMA) to create a memorial to those who had served in the war. They chose lumber baron and philanthropist Robert A. Long, who had personally given a large sum of money, as president. Others included:
- James Madison Kemper was treasurer of the association. For a short time in 1919 he was President of City Center Bank that was founded by his father, William T. Kemper. His brother, Rufus Crosby Kemper Sr., became president when he left to take over as president of Commerce Bancshares, also controlled by his father.
- Jesse Clyde Nichols (J.C.), a real estate developer, was a lead proponent of the Liberty Monument.
- William Volker, businessman and philanthropist, helped the city acquire the land for the memorial.
- George Kessler, designer of the landscaping at the memorial.
In 1919, the LMA spearheaded a fund drive that included 83,000 contributors and collected more than $2.5 million in less than two weeks, driven by what museum curator Doran Cart has described as "complete, unbridled patriotism". There would not be the monetary problems that plagued the Bunker Hill Monument for the American Revolutionary War in Boston a century earlier.
Groundbreaking and dedication
In attendance at the groundbreaking ceremony on November 1, 1921, were 200,000 people, including then-Vice President Calvin Coolidge, Lieutenant General Baron Jacques of Belgium, Admiral Earl Beatty of Great Britain, General Armando Diaz of Italy, Marshal Ferdinand Foch of France, and General of the Armies John Pershing of the United States, along with sixty thousand members of the American Legion. The local veteran chosen to present flags to the commanders was a Kansas City haberdasher, Harry S. Truman, who would later serve as 33rd President of the United States, (1945-1952). The finished monument was dedicated on November 11, 1926, by now 30th President Coolidge, in the presence of Queen Marie of Romania. Coolidge announced that the memorial "...has not been raised to commemorate war and victory, but rather the results of war and victory which are embodied in peace and liberty.... Today I return in order that I may place the official sanction of the national government upon one of the most elaborate and impressive memorials that adorn our country. 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."
Renovations
- In 1935, bas reliefs by Walker Hancock of Jacques, Beatty, Diaz, Foch and Pershing were unveiled.
- In 1981-1982, corresponding to its 60th anniversary, the building revealed new exhibits under improved lighting sources.
- The memorial was closed in 1994 due to safety concerns, after aging revealed problems with drainage and the original construction. Local shopping malls voluntarily helped to put part of the museum collection on display while the memorial was unavailable. When the poor condition of the building became an embarrassment for the city, Kansas City voters in 1998 passed a limited-run sales tax to support the restoration. Plans were also made at this time to expand the site with a museum to accommodate the LMA's growing collection. Local, national and international support provided $102 million for this undertaking, ultimately revealed at its 2006 reopening.
- In 2004, Congress named the Liberty Memorial museum as the nation's official World War I Museum, and construction started on a new 80,000-square-foot (7,400 m2) expansion and the Edward Jones Research Center underneath the original memorial. The year that this was completed, Liberty Memorial was designated a National Historic Landmark (September 20, 2006).
- Another substantial renovation, with a cost estimate of $5 million was undertaken beginning in December 2011. It included $170,000 in energy-efficiency upgrades to the building as well as improvements to the artificial flame atop the tower. After several months of dormancy, the flame was "relit" on February 1, 2013. Other portions of the overall renovation included security upgrades along with repairs to certain limestone sections and brush removal.
- An addition planned for completion in 2018 is the Wylie Gallery, which will occupy existing unused space on the east side of the museum building. It is part of a 6.4-million-dollar upgrade made possible by a fundraising campaign coinciding with the tenth anniversary of the museum's 2006 reopening. The gallery will house traveling exhibits from around the world.
Current designation
On December 19, 2014, President Barack Obama signed legislation recognizing it as a national memorial, which effectively redesignated the entire site as the National World War I Museum and Memorial.
Design
The national design competition was managed by Thomas R. Kimball, a former president of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). After discord within the organization locally, the design contract was finally awarded to New York architect Harold Van Buren Magonigle.
Liberty Tower
The main doors at the bottom of a large set of stairs are made from ornamental bronze, and the walls of the first floor lobby are finished in Kasota stone, which was quarried in Kasota, Minnesota. The first floor corridor and the grand stairway are finished in travertine that was imported from Italy. At night, the top of the 217-foot (66 m) tall memorial tower emits a "flame effect", steam illuminated by bright red and orange lights. This effect creates the illusion of a burning pyre and can be seen for some distance. Overall, the memorial rises 265 feet (81 m) above the surrounding area.
External buildings
The tower and buildings are designed in the classical Egyptian Revival style of architecture with a limestone exterior. The foundation was constructed using sawed granite, and the exterior ground level walls are made of Bedford stone. On opposite sides of the main deck of the Liberty Memorial are Exhibition Hall and Memory Hall. Memory Hall includes murals originally painted for the Panthéon de la Guerre in Paris, and adapted by LeRoy Daniel MacMorris in the 1950s.
Between each hall and the tower, above the museum entrance, sit two stone Assyrian sphinxes, named "Memory" and "Future," covering their faces with their wings. Memory faces East, hiding its face from the horrors of the European battlefields. Its counterpart faces West and shields its eyes from a future yet unseen.
Main Museum Building
The subterranean portion was designed by Ralph Appelbaum Associates and greatly expands the original facilities. The north side of the museum, opposite the main entrance and below the Liberty tower, contains a large work of art upon its wall, which can be plainly seen from Union Station across Pershing Road from Penn Valley Park:
Grounds
The grounds were designed by George Kessler who is also famous for his City Beautiful design for the Kansas City park and boulevard system. The road on the west side of the Memorial is Kessler Road.
Just outside the museum entrance is a large elliptical fountain, and on each side is a tapering staircase ascending to the memorial deck above. The approach from the south contains the "Walk of Honor," a series of engraved bricks in three sections commemorating veterans of World War I, veterans of all wars, and honored civilians.
Museum features
The primary museum consists of:
- Two main galleries containing exhibitions with period artifacts. The first focuses on the beginning of the Great War prior to U.S. involvement, while the second focuses on the United States' military and civilian involvement in the war and efforts for peace. Items in these collections include:
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- A Renault FT tank
- Uniforms such as Paul von Hindenburg's Model 1915 Field Jacket
- A 1917 Harley-Davidson Model J motorcycle
- A 1918 Ford Model T ambulance
- General John J. Pershing's Headquarter flag
- Munitions
- Maps & photographs
- International Propaganda posters
- Replica trenches
- State-of-the-art interactive displays
- Sound booths with audio recordings of the period
- Two theaters that provide visitors with an educational narrative. One precedes the first gallery, and a larger one is passed through to enter the second gallery.
- The Edward Jones Research Center, carrying 75,000 archival documents, 9,500 library titles, and additional objects.
- R.A. Long Education Center: A multi-purpose conference room and classroom
- J.C. Nichols Auditorium for special events
- The Over There Café featuring flags, music, artwork, and menu items inspired by "the people and places of the Great War."
- A museum store
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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