FREE PHOTO ARTICLE: The National WWI Museum, Kansas City
Last weekend Nicolai and I sat down in person for a Q and A with the National WWI Museum in Kansas City to talk all things Ring of Fire. Today, I wanted to show you a little of what’s inside the museum, and the story behind it…
This weekend, IWM is holding a “history festival,” and there is not a single thing on the schedule about the First World War. There are precisely two WWI books in their gift shop in London written in the last fifteen years. There’s literally no attempt at this point to outwardly present anything new on the conflict, which doesn’t tie in at all with the constant study of it and all of the new work being done by researchers.
So as a Brit, I’m a little jealous of the scope of the Kansas City museum, because it’s what I want for us. As an institution completely dedicated to the history of the First World War, it has a massive advantage over any comparably sized outfit in the UK, where this conflict is an afterthought or the introduction to all the Second World War conflict. Because never, not once, does it have to play second fiddle to the other, more marketable war. Liberated from paying any attention to the events of 1939-1945, the National WWI Museum take this mission extremely seriously.
Some bloke I wrote a book with outside the museum .
A view of the auditorium last weekend (Carolyn Day)
The museum began life as a monument to the men and women who had served. In the aftermath of the war, thanks in large part to ordinary people in the region, some 40 million dollars in today’s money was raised in a matter of days and an array of First World War dignitaries from around the world (David Beatty was the UK rep) were present at the site dedication in 1921. The memorial itself (which gives you the best view in Kansas City from the top) is done in ‘Egyptian Revival’ and was dedicated on completion five years later by President Coolidge in front of a crowd of more than 150,000 people.
Over the following decades, the memorial was gradually neglected, and in 1994 it was closed as a result of safety concerns. The city rallied again, and in 1998 a limited-time sales tax was implemented to not only restore it, but to add a museum to the site, making use of thousands of items that the memorial’s organisation had been accumulating since the early 1920s. The museum and a research centre was built into the foundations of the revitalised memorial, and officially designated as America’s official, National First World War museum. The memorial was also designated a National Historic Landmark. Since it opened in 2006, more than two million people have visited, including Former Vice President Dick Cheney, General Colin Powell, a presidential candidate named Barack Obama, and Senator John McCain. More importantly, in 2008 the museum also hosted Fran Buckles on Memorial Day weekend. He was the last surviving American veteran of WWI.
One thing the museum absolutely nails is the global nature of the war. This is much, much more than an American perception of the conflict. When you walk in, you pass over a field of poppies on a glass walkway of the atrium, with the monument above you.
I thought you’d like to see inside the museum, so here are some photos of the large scale exhibits, like this Renault FT tank, a British gun, and a motor cycle…
The museum also gets the balance of screens and “stuff” right. There’s nothing worse than a museum full of iPads and a complete lack of exhibits, so here is some of the diverse collection.
Trench shin pads. Below are some flying goggles, and a floor tile pilfered from the kaiser’s hunting lodge.
A prosthetic limb manufactured by Carnes Artificial Limb Co., Kansas City, MO. It was used by 1st Lt. Henry G. Botger, 311th Infantry, 78th Division, AEF.
A recent sparkle has added more, including a really well though out ruin of a church on the Western Front being used as a dressing station, that examines both physical and mental wounds (photographs by Carolyn Day).
The collection of ephemera - particularly recruitment posters and propaganda has always impressed me…
But if you head downstairs again, you find piles of glass cases adorning the research rooms and office space with even more items. Starting with this creepy doll…
And if all that is not enough, you can also view the Pantheon de la Guerre.
Nicolai did a whole article on this for his Substack and for the recent GWG magazine “War Art” issue, but in short, it is a huge piece conceived by French artists Pierre Carrier-Belleuse and Auguste Gorguet, and produced by dozens of French artists. Exhibited as a type of cyclorama when it opened in Paris in 1918, the almost 400-foot-long and 40-foot-high canvas features thousands of portraits of war participants.
The Pantheon de la Guerre was shown in the Chicago Exposition in 1933, and it was due to return to France, but then everyone forgot about it. It sat outside a warehouse in Baltimore, Maryland, for over twenty years until a local restauraant owner named bought it for scrap. Kansas City artist Daniel MacMorris saw it and four years later convinced Mr. Haussner to donate it to the Liberty Memorial.
MacMorris converted the Pantheon to a mural to fit the two museum buildings in Kansas City. ‘He cut off the ruined exterior of the rolled canvas and "cut and pasted" the figures to fit the wall spaces. Many of the pieces cut out remain in the museum collection, although MacMorris did give several sections away to friends. Other pieces returned to Baltimore.’
The centre French section and the large section depicting the Allies are displayed in separate buildings for you to see.
To find out more about the museum visit: www.theworldwar.org
Ring of Fire is available to buy on both sides of the Atlantic now: https://geni.us/RingOfFire