More Sightseeing in Kansas City

The World War I Memorial Tower. 

I wrote previously of a couple of museums that taught me a great deal. I’d like to share with you some observations about other historical sites we had the chance to see in the Kansas City area. 

On Monday afternoon, Sherry dropped me off at the World War I Museum and Memorial. Sherry and Caroline wanted to check out a museum of toy miniatures. Sam had the choice and went with the girls. He asked me later if I thought he would have liked the WWI museum and I’m still unsure of an answer.

The World War I Museum was a very wordy museum. The displays were top notch and thorough, but I didn’t have the stamina to read most of it. Perhaps that’s because I felt on a bit of a time crunch (Sherry was coming back for me at an undetermined time). I was also in a mood to be picky about what I looked for, namely more context about America’s involvement in the war.

Mockup of a French trench.

Something quite admirable about the museum was how it was trying to be inclusive of all sides in the war. One area of the museum displayed how a typical British trench was constructed. It was adjacent to French and German setups. Even Russian Army artifacts were on display. A docent there told me that the variety of artifacts is a point of pride in the museum. And, come to think of it, other treatments of the war that I’ve seen usually focus on just one or two combatants in the conflict.

This truck might not appear particularly modern, but many of the small arms seemed quite advanced. 

I came away with a few new learnings. I was struck by how modern some of the weapondry looked. For the Western nations involved, many of the rifles, sidearms, and light machine guns looked like they could have been in World War II instead. Heck, a Browning Automatic Rife was on display, which I know the solider I researched wielded in World War II and which I know my father-in-law was trained to use in the Navy in the Vietnam War era.

The museum offered an interesting twist on the conventional M.A.I.N. (militarism, alliances, imperialism, and nationalism) explanations for the war. They put more emphasis on economic factors than I’ve typically considered, using that to address concerns leaders at that time had about emerging soclialist threats in their nations and how imperiaism and nationalism may have been combustible ways to address those stressors. The museum also talked about how nationalism and the pageantry of monarchies reinforced one another as countering forces against the threat of social unrest.

Memorializing the fallen.

A small exhibit on memorialization caught my attention and gave me reason to talk off the ear of a docent there. One interesting tribute about which I learned was common among German war dead. Comrades would memorialize a temporary burial plot with an upturned bottle, staked into the ground, and containing flowers or photos in honor of he who lay buried there.

Looking south from atop the Memorial Tower.

Looking north from atop the Memorial Tower. 

The museum features a memorial tower. I went up to the top and captured some photographs of the city from up high.

This museum had been on my wish list to see for a while, and I’m glad I got there. I may have missed a neat opportunity not seeing it with Sam, but I’m glad another museum existed that had a better chance to appeal to Caroline than this would have.

The Memorial Tower as seen from near the Kansas City Fed.