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OVERVIEW OF POTENTIAL PROGRAMMING

The National War Museum

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OVERVIEW

The NWMP’s basic concept is ambitious: one-part history (costs of war on civilians, understanding causes of war); one-part war (strategy and battles, as in D-Day’s Operation Overlord); and one-part veterans’ experience (personal impacts via storytelling).

 

Based on the NWMP’s research to date, there are several approaches for curating a military museum: via storytelling, thematical, chronological, or a hybrid of these. The NWM will combine survey/chronology, beginning with the American Revolution, along with special features. The coverage will be contingent on the size of the museum and the ownership structure.

THEME

Many established military museums take a “Freedom is Not Free” theme, with messaging around personal stories of great courage, ultimate sacrifice, and inspirational leadership. This overarching theme underlies the NWM.

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

A fundamental difference to other military museums will be the NWM’s much broader global perspectives, such as how developments on other war and political fronts impacted our Armed Forces. For example, the Red Army’s hard-fought victory at Stalingrad dramatically changed the course of World War II. This one battle has been covered extensively by American, Russian, British, and German military historians and writers.

GETTING STARTED

A key step will be to set up a blue-ribbon panel of military and other historians, museum experts, and other stakeholders to explore programming. Prior to this, input will be sought from the public, including target audiences. Benchmarking and “lessons learned” from existing military museums also will be sought.

EXHIBIT IDEAS

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-  Overview of every conflict/war/peacekeeping mission involving the United States, many obscure and almost forgotten. For example, the War of 1812, the Punitive Expedition (Mexico, 1916), the U.S. force that invaded northern Russia in 1918 after the Russian Revolution, the Korean (“Forgotten”) War (1950-53), Operation Power Pack (Dominican Republic, 1965), Operation Just Cause (Panama 1989), and Bosnia (2004), through Afghanistan.

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-  In-depth exploration of the trauma and mental health conditions variously called combat fatigue, shell shock, post-traumatic stress disorder, endured by veterans of every war and conflict.

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-  In partnership with the American Battle Monuments Commission, an exhibit creating much more awareness of all permanent U.S. military cemeteries outside the United States.

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-  Coverage of anti-war movements prior to and during U.S. military conflicts.

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-  Highlights of the Library of Congress Veterans History Project.

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-  The role of women, both military and civilian, in U.S. wars. The wartime work of thousands of WWII Rosie the Riveters is well known, but much more needs to be told. 

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-  How the French Resistance helped win World War II; many Americans do not appreciate the role that the Resistance played in saving downed U.S and British flyers’ lives, as well as the roles of other resistance groups in Europe.

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-  The role of Multilateral Conferences in wars and their aftermath.

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-  Highlighting lesser-known services such as the Submarine Force of the United States Navy. Submarines have a long history dating back to the American Revolution, and played a key role in the Pacific Theatre of WWII, suffering the huge loss of 52 submarines.

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-  War Propaganda, including posters and other media (U.S and otherwise).

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-  U.S. military music (anthems of the U.S service branches); and popular wartime songs.

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-  Roles of Alliances in U.S. wars and conflicts, and peacetime.

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-  Using the Imperial War Museum’s War Memorials Register as a model, a presentation on interactive databases of U.S. military monuments. The American Legion Memorial Database, created in 2017 and containing 2,800 memorials (and growing) from all 50 states and a dozen foreign countries, could be a starting point.

MODELS FOR THE NATIONAL WAR MUSEUM ARE:

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“The Price of Freedom: Americans at War” gallery within the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of American History, in Washington, DC.  When this small 18,000 sq. ft. gallery first opened in 2004, a critic said “It is astonishing that something like this has not been done before.” The positive thing is something like this exists under the auspices of the Smithsonian’s worldwide brand. Rooted in some debate about nature of the museum at the time, the exhibit captures ideas of the NWM, including a chronology of our war history, 16 different conflicts, a good sampling of objects, such as Gold Star Mothers, with its Western Union telegram, and the “UNITED We Are Strong WW II Allies” poster. However, the survey doesn’t adequately synthesize the themes of conflict, personal sacrifice, and geopolitics. This could be the launch pad for the National War Museum.

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National Veterans Memorial and Museum, Columbus, Ohio  This is a remarkable depiction of  the veteran’s experience in the United States. It has the right formula of artifacts and multimedia exhibits explaining the stories of a wide range of veterans. It is easily walkable from the downtown area, and takes up only about 53,000 square feet. The process to transform the NVMM from the original veterans memorial is a huge success story itself.

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National Museum of the United States Army, Fort Belvoir, Virginia.  This new flagship museum is effective in many ways.  It devotes a lot of space to the evolution of military and society, and specific coverage of wars, especially the Civil War, WW II,  and Vietnam. The poster reproductions throughout add a special touch. But the museum is hard to get to, and focuses mainly on just one branch of the U.S. Armed Forces.

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Imperial War Museum, London, England (The IWM has many strengths, including those not suggested by its name alone. It is immersive, educational and appealing for all ages; expertly combines hardware, interactive exhibits with first-hand accounts; and presents well written narrative regarding politics and military conflicts. The IWM examines UK’s major conflicts  through a chronological order of why it happened, how if affected the British people, and the aftermath. As one visitor’s comment said, “the good things and the bad things”. The World War I and II sections are outstanding.

 

The IWM’s War Memorials Register is truly unique in the museum world. It contains links to over 90,000 high quality photos of war memorials in the United Kingdom. It can be searched by memorial name, type, and location. You can also search through over 1 million names of individuals (and even animals) on the memorials, spanning all conflicts.

 

Two other international military museums are especially noteworthy. The Canadian War Museum in Ottawa is compact, yet captures the nation’s full military history, serves a place of remembrance, and covers the wars’ impact on Canadians today. The https://museen.nuernberg.de/dokuzentrum/ in Nuremberg, Germany, is unique in  how it  presents Hitler’s rise to power and the impact on the German people. This is accentuated by the stunning walkway of glass through the building.

 

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SOME PERMANENT EXHIBITS FOR CONSIDERATION

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  • An exhibit(s) depicting every conflict/war/peacekeeping mission involving the United States, including many lesser-known. For example, the U.S. force that invaded northern Russia in 1918 after the Russian Revolution, The Korean (“Forgotten”) War, Operation Just Cause (Panama 1989), The Punitive Expedition (Mexico, 1916), Operation Power Pack (Dominican Republic 1965), Bosnia (2004), and the War of 1812.
     

  • Exhibit(s) on the trauma and mental health conditions variously called combat fatigue, shell shock, post-traumatic stress disorder, endured by veterans of every war and conflict. The impetus for the Central Union Mission in DC, in the late 19th century, was caring for alcoholic Civil War veterans living on the streets of the Capital.
     

  • In partnership with the American Battle Monuments Commission, an exhibit creating much more awareness of all permanent United States military cemeteries outside the United States.
     

  • Coverage of anti-war movements prior to and during U.S. military conflicts.
     

  • An exhibit highlighting the Library of Congress Veterans History Project.
     

  • Exhibit(s) highlighting  the role of women, both military and civilian, in U.S. wars. The wartime work of thousands of WWII Rosie the Riveters is well known, but much more needs to be told.
     

  • Exhibit on how the Resistance Helped Win World War II- Many Americans do not appreciate the role that the French Resistance played in saving downed U.S and British flyers’ lives, as well as the roles of other resistance groups in Europe.

  • Exhibit on the role of Multilateral Conferences in wars and their aftermath.
     

  • Exhibit(s) highlighting lesser-known services such as the Submarine Force of the U.S. Navy- submarines have a long history dating back to the American Revolution, and played a key role in the Pacific Theatre of WWII, suffering a huge loss of 52 submarines.
     

  • Exhibit on War Propaganda, including posters and other media (U.S and otherwise).
     

  • Exhibit on U.S. military music (anthems of the U.S service branches); and popular wartime songs.
     

  • Exhibits on the important roles of Alliances in U.S. wars and conflicts, and peacetime.
     

  • An exhibit creating awareness of interactive databases of U.S. military monuments. For comparison, the Imperial War Museum’s War Memorials Register is a comprehensive national register of over 90,000 United Kingdom war memorials and the names of the individuals they commemorate. According to the IWM, “War memorials form an important part of our cultural heritage and reflect the changing face of commemoration as well as artistic, social, military and international history”. The American Legion Memorial Database, created in 2017, contains 2,800 memorials from all 50 states and a dozen foreign countries.  It can be searched by location or keywords, and anyone can submit memorials.

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