The United States’ official World War I museum sits in Kansas City, and it is extraordinary. Beneath the Liberty Memorial Tower, the National WWI Museum and Memorial tells the global story of the Great War through one of the world’s most comprehensive collections.
Visitors cross a glass bridge over a field of 9,000 red poppies — each representing 1,000 war deaths — before entering galleries filled with original artifacts: a French Renault tank, Harley-Davidson dispatch motorcycles, propaganda posters, uniforms and a recreated trench that makes the soldier’s experience viscerally real.
Founded from a community fundraising campaign in 1919 and designated by Congress as the national museum, it anchors Kansas City’s identity as a city that remembers. In 2026 the museum and memorial celebrate their centennial with special programming all year.
Plan at least half a day: this is not a quick walk-through, but a powerful, beautifully presented journey through the war that shaped the modern world.
