Nearest parking On site (no charge) Opened 1926 Added to NRHP 20 September 2006 | Website www.theworldwar.org Phone +1 816-888-8100 | |
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Location Kansas City, Missouri, United States Address 2 Memorial Dr, Kansas City, MO 64108, USA Hours Open today · 10AM–5PMWednesday10AM–5PMThursday10AM–5PMFriday10AM–5PMSaturday10AM–5PMSunday10AM–5PMMondayClosedTuesday10AM–5PMSuggest an edit Architect Harold Van Buren Magonigle Architectural styles Beaux-Arts architecture, Egyptian Revival architecture Similar Liberty Memorial, Kansas City Union Station, Sea Life Kansas City, Arabia Steamboat Museum, Nelson‑Atkins Museum of Art Profiles | ||
American artifacts national world war i museum and memorial part 2 preview
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 re-opened 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.
Contents
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."
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:
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 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 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 President of the United States. The finished monument was dedicated on November 11, 1926, by 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
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 a 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: