National WWI Museum Set to Open
Nov. 30, 2006 — -- The nation's first museum dedicated exclusively to WWI is set to open this weekend just as the last living veterans from the war are beginning to die off. The National World War I Museum at the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, Mo., was officially designated by Congress in 2004.
The museum will boast a collection of more than 49,000 artists and use interactive technology to tell the story of the war from those who lived through it.
"This is one of the greatest collections of WWI artifacts anywhere in the world," said Ralph Appelbaum, designer of the museum. "However, this museum will not just put objects on display; it will put whole events on display."
The $24 million project, which was funded through public and private funds, is designed to teach the public about the "war to end all wars," especially since most WWI veterans have died or are aging. The museum opens almost two weeks after Ernest Charles Pusey, one of the nation's longest living WWI veterans, died at age 111 on Nov. 19.
On Nov. 10, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush presented Pusey with a World War I Victory Medal. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, Pusey's death left fewer than 25 living U.S. World War I veterans out of nearly 5 million who served.
The museum will have war planes and a No Man's Land exhibit, which will show battlefield debris from the war. In addition, there will also be the Horizon Theater with an IMAX-sized video screen, as well as a poignant tribute to those who died in the war.
"There will be a poppy field below (the glass) with 9,000 silk poppies, each representing 1,000 combatant deaths for a total of 9 million," museum executive director Brig. Gen. Steve Berkheiser said in a press release.
Officials say one of the most important features of the museum will be the words of WWI veterans -- living testaments to history preserved in video.
"You'll hear people tell their story of life in the trenches. When you put your head there, you'll hear the actual language spoken in those trenches and the stories they would tell you," museum curator Doran Cart said.
ABC News affiliate, KMBC-TV in Kansas City, Mo. contributed to this report.
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