Installation view of the “America Mobilizes” display
Main gallery gets major upgrades
In May 2023 the National WWI Museum and Memorial began the most extensive renovation since the much-heralded redesign of the Museum in 2006. The multiyear project of critical upgrades, targeted for completion in 2025, is in preparation for the 2026 centennial of the Liberty Memorial.
In November, the Museum and Memorial rolled out the second phase in this project with four major upgrades to the multiroom Main Gallery, which include a rewrite of the “Prologue: Grand Illusions” section, the addition of new interactive touch tables, and reimaginings of the “America Mobilizes” and “Move ’Em Out and Bon Voyage” displays.
The “Prologue” features a new large-format, three-screen media frieze that refocuses the exhibit on the global nature of the war compared to the prior emphasis on the war in Europe. It includes the seldom told story of thousands of British, French and German colonial troops who fought pitched battles in Africa and Asia, often against one another, defending the empires to which they belonged but from whom they soon sought independence.
“America Mobilizes” moves the story forward to recruiting, training and the mustering out of the “Army of Democracy.” The primary focus is how Americans rallied around President Woodrow Wilson’s call to “make the world safe for democracy.” But a significant new addition includes an introduction to the dissenting voices of many Americans.
New, and much more sophisticated interactives are featured throughout the Main Gallery. One room has four new interactive touch tables — two gamified, two informational — with programing on wartime aviation, maritime communication and transportation, and uniforms. Andrew Wilson, senior producer for Richard Lewis Media Group, which designed the interactives, explained that such interactive devices are the most effective way to engage and immerse visitors with varied interests, levels of knowledge, and learning styles.
Christopher Warren, the museum’s vice president of curatorial affairs and chief curator, describes the upgrades as not only including the latest technology, but also providing “new and interesting narratives from WWI that will create a richer and more immersive experience.” The changes, he added, reflect the latest scholarship and greater diversity of the museum’s guests.
Coming at the end of 2024 is “Epilogue,” the final physical space in the Main Gallery. This section will feature a narrative environmental film, which will surround guests with large-scale imagery, spoken word, sound design and music “to provoke an understanding of the outcomes and continuing effects and challenges of the war experienced in the 20th century and today.”
Asked about the importance of the redesign, President and Museum and Memorial CEO Matthew Naylor called attention to the coincidence of the 2026 Centennial of the WWI Museum and Memorial and the 2026 semiquincentennial, or 250th anniversary, of the nation. He drew a parallel between World War I and the nation’s founding as critical moments in the nation’s history, when Americans were called upon “to establish, stand for, and defend, the values of freedom and democracy.”
Naylor said he hopes both anniversaries would bring the Museum and Memorial and the community together in celebration and rededication to an ongoing vision for the next century. He pointed to the Great Frieze that adorns the Memorial, which reminds us of what World War I was all about, and that calls on us to “strive on to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace.”
The original designer of the Main Gallery, Ralph Appelbaum Associates, is also guiding this round of updates. The exhibition designer and fabricator is Taylor Studios Inc. Richard Lewis Media Group is the creator and producer of the interactive digital media programs. Donna Lawrence Productions is creating the new videos and Electrosonic is responsible for the AV design and integration.
For more information, www.theworldwar.org.
all images courtesy of the National WWI Museum and Memorial
