National World War I Museum and Memorial
The National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri was opened in 1926 as the Liberty Memorial. In 2004, it was designated by the United States Congress as the country's official war memorial and museum dedicated to World War I. A non-profit organization manages it in cooperation with the Kansas City Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners.[3] The museum focuses on global events from the causes of World War I 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 representing 1,000 combatant deaths.[4]
"Liberty Memorial" redirects here. For other uses, see Liberty Memorial (disambiguation).Established
November 11, 1926
Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.
Onsite (no charge)
1926
Harold Van Buren Magonigle, Westlake Construction Company
George Kessler, landscape architect
Beaux Arts Classicism, Egyptian Revival
September 20, 2006[1]
September 20, 2006[2]
The museum was temporarily closed in 1994 for renovations and reopened in December 2006 with an expanded facility to exhibit an artifact collection begun in 1920.[5]
History[edit]
Liberty Memorial Association[edit]
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. For president, they chose lumber baron and philanthropist Robert A. Long, who had personally donated a large sum of money.[6] 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. Real estate developer J. C. Nichols was a lead proponent, and businessman and philanthropist William Volker helped the city acquire the land. George Kessler was the landscape designer.[7] Thomas Rogers Kimball, former president of the American Institute of Architects, assisted Henry M Beardsley in selecting the architect, Harold Van Buren Magonigle.[8]
In 1919, the LMA led a fund drive that included 83,000 contributors and collected more than US$2.5 million in less than two weeks (equivalent to $43.9 million in 2023), driven by what museum curator Doran Cart has described as "complete, unbridled patriotism".[9] This prevented the monetary problems that had plagued the Bunker Hill Monument for the American Revolutionary War in Boston one century earlier.[10]