National World War I Museum & Memorial

 

The absolute best museum in Kansas City is the National World War I Museum and Memorial.  It's nationally ranked and there's definitely a reason.  We've wanted to go to this museum for a long time, and we finally got to go today.  It did not disappoint.  The introductory film does a great job of giving the background of all the complex factors that led to the set up of World War I.  From there you travel through the whole progression of the war:  One half of the museum is 1914-1917, and the other half is factors leading up to the American entrance into the war until the Treaty of Versailles.  

The kiddos worked on a fairly difficult scavenger hunt of images and questions to be answered.  It took us two hours to find everything. 

They recreated the size of a crater caused by bombing.  It was eery.

The kiddos learned all about trench warfare.  We also learned a lot of startling facts like 1 in 3 French males from ages 18-30 died during the War!

Here's a copy of Darwin's Origin of Species: It was showcased with an area about Imperialism in the room that explains factors that culminated together to lead to the War. 

We definitely learned quite a bit, and I would recommend this museum to anyone who visits Kansas City.  We finished up our trip downtown with a late lunch at Q39.  Kansas City is known for its barbecue, and it definitely lived up to the hype.  Yum!