The National World War I Museum and Memorial in

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the List of United States cities by populat ...

was opened in 1926 as the Liberty Memorial. In 2004, it was designated by the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is Bicameralism, bicameral, composed of a lower body, the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives, and an upper body, ...

as the country's official

war memorial A war memorial is a building, monument, statue, or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or (predominating in modern times) to commemorate those who died or were injured in a war. Symbolism Historical usage It has ...

and

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make th ...

dedicated to

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. It is managed by a non-profit organization in cooperation with the Kansas City Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners. The museum focuses on global events from the

causes of World War I The identification of the causes of World War I remains controversial. World War I began in the Balkans on July 28, 1914, and hostilities ended on November 11, 1918, leaving 17 million dead and 25 million wounded. Moreover, the Russian Civil ...

before 1914 through the 1918 armistice and

1919 Paris Peace Conference Events January * January 1 ** The Czechoslovak Legions occupy much of the self-proclaimed "free city" of Pressburg (now Bratislava), enforcing its incorporation into the new republic of Czechoslovakia. ** HMY ''Iolaire'' sinks off the co ...

. Visitors enter the exhibit space within the facility across a glass bridge above a field of 9,000

red poppies ''Red Poppies'' () is a 1998 Chinese-language novel by the Tibetan Chinese writer Alai, whose theme is based on the Tibetan custom and traditions. The novel consists of 12 chapters with a total of 481,000 Chinese characters. It won the Mao Dun L ...

, each representing 1,000 combatant deaths. The museum was temporarily closed in 1994 for renovations, and reopened in December 2006 with an expanded facility to exhibit an artifact collection that had begun in 1920.

History

Liberty Memorial Association

Soon after

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. For president, they chose lumber baron and

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

Robert A. Long, who had personally donated a large sum of money. James Madison Kemper was treasurer of the association, who had been briefly in 1919 the President of City Center Bank that was founded by his father, William T. Kemper. J.C. Nichols, a real estate developer, was a lead proponent of the Liberty Monument.

William Volker William Volker (; ; April 1, 1859 – November 4, 1947) was an entrepreneur who turned a picture frame business into a multimillion-dollar empire and who then gave away his fortune to shape much of Kansas City, Missouri, both through the William Vol ...

, businessman and philanthropist, helped the city acquire the land for the memorial.

George Kessler George Edward Kessler (July 16, 1862 – March 20, 1923) was an American pioneer city planner and landscape architect. Over the course of his forty-one year career, George E. Kessler completed over 200 projects and prepared plans for 26 comm ...

was the landscape designer. In 1919, the LMA led a fund drive that included 83,000 contributors and collected more than $2.5 million in less than two weeks (equivalent to $ in ), driven by what museum curator Doran Cart has described as "complete, unbridled patriotism". This prevented the monetary problems that had plagued the

Bunker Hill Monument The Bunker Hill Monument is a monument erected at the site of the Battle of Bunker Hill in Boston, Massachusetts, which was among the first major battles between the Red Coats and Patriots in the American Revolutionary War. The 221-foot (67 m) gran ...

for the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

one century earlier. Tribute at the Liberty Memorial, Kansas City, c

Dedications

The groundbreaking ceremony on November 1, 1921, was attended by 200,000 people, including Vice President

Calvin Coolidge Calvin Coolidge (born John Calvin Coolidge Jr.; ; July 4, 1872January 5, 1933) was the 30th president of the United States from 1923 to 1929. Born in Vermont, Coolidge was a Republican lawyer from New England who climbed up the ladder of Ma ...

, Lieutenant General Baron Jacques of Belgium, Admiral of the Fleet Lord Beatty of

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It ...

, General

Armando Diaz Armando Diaz, 1st Duke della Vittoria, (5 December 1861 – 28 February 1928) was an Italian general and a Marshal of Italy. He is mostly known for his role as Chief of Staff of the Regio Esercito during World War I from November 1917. He ...

of Italy, Marshal

Ferdinand Foch Ferdinand Foch ( , ; 2 October 1851 – 20 March 1929) was a French general and military theorist who served as the Supreme Allied Commander during the First World War. An aggressive, even reckless commander at the First Marne, Flanders and Ar ...

of France,

General of the Armies General of the Armies of the United States, more commonly referred to as General of the Armies, is the highest military rank in the United States Army. The rank has been conferred three times: to John J. Pershing in 1919, as a personal accola ...

John J. Pershing of the United States, and 60,000 members of the

American Legion The American Legion, commonly known as the Legion, is a non-profit organization of U.S. war veterans headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. It is made up of state, U.S. territory, and overseas departments, and these are in turn made up of ...

. 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 from 1945 to 1953. The finished monument was dedicated on November 11, 1926, by 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 Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...

Walker Hancock Walker Kirtland Hancock (June 28, 1901 – December 30, 1998) was an American sculptor and teacher. He created notable monumental sculptures, including the Pennsylvania Railroad World War II Memorial (1950–52) at 30th Street Station in Philadel ...

of Jacques, Beatty, Diaz, Foch and Pershing were unveiled. DiazVictoryMemorialKC

In 1961 the monument was rededicated by former President Harry S. Truman. The local effort to restore the fading monument was headed by Armand Glenn, the local head of the central district legion. Local company

Hallmark A hallmark is an official mark or series of marks struck on items made of metal, mostly to certify the content of noble metals—such as platinum, gold, silver and in some nations, palladium. In a more general sense, the term '' hallmark'' can a ...

provided support, and on November 11, 1961, on its 40th anniversary, there was a large dedication ceremony on the memorial grounds. A crowd of 15,000 watched Truman preside over the service. 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, because aging had produced 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 made to expand the site with a museum to accommodate the LMA's growing collection. Local, national, and international support provided (equivalent to $ in ), ultimately revealed at its 2006 reopening. In 2004, Congress named it the nation's official World War I museum, and construction started on a new 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 on September 20, 2006. A substantial renovation, estimated at , began in December 2011. It included $170,000 in energy efficiency upgrades and improvements to the artificial flame atop the tower. After several months of dormancy, the flame was relit on February 1, 2013. Security was upgraded, certain limestone sections were repaired, and brush was removed. An addition planned for completion in 2018 is the Wylie Gallery, to occupy existing unused space on the east side of the museum building. It is part of a $6.4 million upgrade made possible by a fundraising campaign coinciding with the tenth anniversary of the museum's 2006 reopening. The gallery houses traveling exhibits from around the world.

Current designation

On December 19, 2014, President Barack Obama signed legislation recognizing it as "a 'World War I Museum and Memorial'", which resulted in redesignation of 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 The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to s ...

(AIA). After discord within the organization locally, the design contract was finally awarded to New York architect

Harold Van Buren Magonigle Harold Van Buren Magonigle (1867–1935) was an American architect, artist, and author best known for his memorials. He achieved his greatest success as a designer of monuments, but his artistic practices included sculpture, painting, writing, ...

. A disagreement between members of the Kansas City Chapter of AIA and Kimball over the rules, caused almost half of the local members to resign in April 1922. They immediately went on to form the Architectural League of Kansas City, which was merged back into the AIA in the early 1930s. Unlike the AIA at the time, the Architectural League of Kansas City provided membership to less experienced architects and draftsmen and provided social and educational opportunities. Regardless of the controversy, many local architects submitted entries including those who resigned from the AIA. The jury unanimously awarded the contract to Magonigle. View from top of Liberty Memorial

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 quarried in

Kasota, Minnesota Kasota is a city within the larger Kasota Township, Le Sueur County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 714 at the 2020 census. Geography Kasota is about halfway between Mankato and St. Peter on the eastern side of the Minnesota Riv ...

. The first floor corridor and the grand stairway are finished in

travertine Travertine ( ) is a form of terrestrial limestone deposited around mineral springs, especially hot springs. It often has a fibrous or concentric appearance and exists in white, tan, cream-colored, and even rusty varieties. It is formed by a p ...

imported from Italy. At night, the top of the memorial tower emits a flame effect from steam illuminated by bright red and orange lights. The illusion of a burning

pyre A pyre ( grc, πυρά; ''pyrá'', from , ''pyr'', "fire"), also known as a funeral pyre, is a structure, usually made of wood, for burning a body as part of a funeral rite or execution. As a form of cremation, a body is placed upon or under the ...

can be seen for some distance. Overall, the memorial rises above the surrounding area. The tower is crowned with four sculptures, the Guardian Spirits. Carved by Robert Aitken and each standing tall, they represent protectors of peace, each holding a sword and named for a virtue: Honor, Courage, Patriotism, and Sacrifice.

External buildings

The tower and buildings are designed in the classical

Egyptian Revival architecture Egyptian Revival is an architectural style that uses the motifs and imagery of ancient Egypt. It is attributed generally to the public awareness of ancient Egyptian monuments generated by Napoleon's conquest of Egypt and Admiral Nelson's defeat ...

style with a

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...

exterior. The foundation was constructed using sawed

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies un ...

, 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

sphinx A sphinx ( , grc, σφίγξ , Boeotian: , plural sphinxes or sphinges) is a mythical creature with the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the wings of a falcon. In Greek tradition, the sphinx has the head of a woman, the haunches of ...

es, named "Memory" and "Future", covering their faces with their wings. Memory faces East, shielding its face from the horrors of the European battlefields. Its counterpart faces West and shrowds its eyes from a future yet unseen.

Main museum building

The subterranean portion was designed by

Ralph Appelbaum Associates Ralph Appelbaum Associates (RAA) is one of the world's longest-established and largest museum exhibition design firms with offices in New York City, London, Beijing, Berlin, Moscow, and Dubai.Bradford A. McKee, What's a Museum: What he says it ...

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 is visible from neighboring

Union Station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...

Grounds

The grounds were designed by George Kessler who is also famous for his

City Beautiful The City Beautiful Movement was a reform philosophy of North American architecture and urban planning that flourished during the 1890s and 1900s with the intent of introducing beautification and monumental grandeur in cities. It was a part of the ...

design for the Kansas City park and boulevard system. The west side is bordered by 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

* 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: ** A

Renault FT The Renault FT (frequently referred to in post-World War I literature as the FT-17, FT17, or similar) was a French light tank that was among the most revolutionary and influential tank designs in history. The FT was the first production tank to ...

tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful ...

** Uniforms such as

Paul von Hindenburg Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg (; abbreviated ; 2 October 1847 – 2 August 1934) was a German field marshal and statesman who led the Imperial German Army during World War I and later became President of Germany fr ...

's Model 1915 Field Jacket ** A 1917

Harley-Davidson Harley-Davidson, Inc. (H-D, or simply Harley) is an American motorcycle manufacturer headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1903, it is one of two major American motorcycle manufacturers to survive the Great Depre ...

Model J motorcycle ** A 1918

Ford Model T The Ford Model T is an automobile that was produced by Ford Motor Company from October 1, 1908, to May 26, 1927. It is generally regarded as the first affordable automobile, which made car travel available to middle-class Americans. The relati ...

ambulance ** General John J. Pershing's headquarter flag ** Munitions ** Maps and photographs ** International propaganda posters ** Replica

trenches A trench is a type of excavation or in the ground that is generally deeper than it is wide (as opposed to a wider gully, or ditch), and narrow compared with its length (as opposed to a simple hole or pit). In geology, trenches result from erosi ...

** 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

Tree of Peace

On the North Lawn was planted a memorial tree called " The Tree of Peace" in honor of those who fought and died in World War I. The international project "Tree of Peace" officially represents

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the ...

under the brand called "Good Idea SlovakiaIdeas from Slovakia". The trademark license was granted by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic. The planting of the memorial tree was carried out under auspice of the Honorary Consulate of Slovakia to the United States and the Consulate General of the Slovak Republic in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

References

Bibliography

External links

Official website
*
Animation and explanation of museum logo

National World War I Museum and Memorial at Google Cultural Institute
* Aber, Sarajane Sandusky, "

'". University of Missouri-Kansas City, 1918–1935. * Millstein, Cydney, "
Historic American Buildings Survey of Liberty Memorial
'". Architectural and Historical Research, April 1, 2000. * Yoho, Carol, "

'', Washburn University, 2009. {{Kansas City, Missouri 1926 establishments in Missouri 1926 sculptures Art Deco sculptures and memorials Cultural infrastructure completed in 1926 Limestone sculptures in the United States Military and war museums in Missouri Monuments and memorials in Missouri Museums in Kansas City, Missouri National Historic Landmarks in Missouri National Register of Historic Places in Kansas City, Missouri Stone sculptures in Missouri Towers in Missouri World War I memorials in the United States World War I museums in the United States Downtown Kansas City Museums established in 1926 National museums of the United States Private congressionally designated national museums of the United States