In honor of Memorial Day, today I’m taking a look at the National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, MO, which Chickadee and I visited back in March.

The first thing we did was take the elevator to the top of the Liberty Memorial Tower. I’ll be honest…when I planned our visit, I wasn’t looking at the information too closely, and I didn’t even realize that was something you could do until we got there! It only costs $6 per person, and I think it’s well worth it.

The view of Kansas City from the top is amazing!

The area around the base of the tower is also really cool. I especially like the pair of Assyrian Sphinxes, one which faces east towards the battlefields of France, and the other towards the west and the future, with both shielding their eyes from the horrors of wars and the unknown.

There is a really cool gallery in the basement that is an open storage center…hundreds (thousands?) of WWI artifacts on display with minimal or even no explanation:

The main museum has an impressive, large-scale timeline of the events of the war, split into two sections…one focusing on the battle prior to US involvement, and the other after we joined the fight.

There are many items on display in the main exhibit, too, including weapons:

And vignettes that give a glimpse into life during the war:

I always enjoy a glimpse at propaganda:

As well as all the other many items on display:

And going into and coming out of the exhibit, you pass over a lovely and moving poppy field:

This is an amazing museum, and one that I wasn’t even aware of until fairly recently. I’m really glad we had the chance to visit, and now I’d like to go to the WWII museum in New Orleans!