Memorial Day weekend offered a rare opportunity to visit the National World War One Museum in Kansas City. They had discounted admission for veterans and their guests. I had been there a couple times last year for events but had not yet toured the museum. The building is built into the side of a hill so that the entrance is below the surrounding grade.
Since it was Memorial Day weekend the museum had a tribute to the 22 veterans a day that take their own lives. They installed a flag for each person representing a week. You can see the top of the entry doors at the lower center of the picture. There are two smaller exhibition halls on the roof/deck of the museum as well as Liberty Memorial Tower, an iconic symbol on the Kansas City skyline.
We entered and paid our admission, they have a book store, and a café as well. It is a well thought out museum. The first thing you notice as you cross a glass bridge to the galleries is the poppy field below you. it is pretty good size and features poppies in a muddy debris strewn field. A touching tribute to those that lost their lives in the Great War.
The museum is well put together. I will apologize for some of the poor angles in the photography. It was quite crowded and they have a ton of stuff in there to view. One thing I liked was the amount of weaponry. Particularly artillery. I was really cool seeing the guns, especially the iconic French 75.
They also had a nice collection of minenwerfer.
There is a great selection of small arms. I did not get too many pictures of those, as they are pretty common, though I did get some shots of the automatic weapons, including my favorite, the Chauchat.
There was much to see in the main gallery including posters.
As we came to the end of our tour there was a beautiful Harley Davidson
And my favorite item of the day, an FT-17
They have quite the collection of American uniforms, as well as a few others on display. The American uniforms were hung up in a climate controlled closet, it was really cool. Here are some shots of the other uniforms they have.
I loved the Stosstruppen uniform, as my TMP moniker would imply. They also had some vignettes you could view through holes, complete with sounds of the battle.
Here is some cool trench art on display.
After touring the main galleries we went to the two halls on the roof deck. The first one we went into had the story of what happened after the war, and the various organizations that developed.
The other hall had displays with sketches and some photos showing the devastation to some of the cities and towns during the war. This hall was built as a memorial to those in the area that lost their lives during the war. There are a number of beautiful murals along the upper wall.
There is also a list of Kansas City area residents that failed to return home.
The deck outside offers some wonderful views of downtown Kansas City.
Liberty Memorial Tower
And the beautiful approach to the museum itself
Sadly the fountain was out of order. A bit of trivia, Kansas City has a large number of water fountains all over the city. A quantity that rivals even Rome. There was supposed to be some static displays out front, however, with the downpour we had the night before that appeared to have quashed that. Overall though, it was a great visit, and I plan to revisit the museum during the week sometime to get a better view of things. I hope you enjoyed the tour and I hope you can all come out here someday and see this wonderful museum.
