Centennial of World War I sparks interest in the Great War, museum director says at Newsmaker

The World War I centennial has spurred a “deep vein of interest” in the United States, with visits to the National World War I Museum and Memorial up by 63 percent, Matthew Naylor, the Kansas City landmark’s president and chief executive, told a National Press Club Headliners Newmaker event on March 29.

Many historians consider the Great War as the defining event of the 20th century and beyond. By the end of the war in 1918, more than 16 million soldiers and civilians had died, and dramatic geopolitical and social upheaval that can still be seen and felt one hundred years later had begun.

After the war’s end, our nation saw “a flurry of activity” as local World War I memorials were built and dedicated in towns and cities, Naylor said. By way of example, he pointed out that within 10 days in 1919, $2.5 million had been raised to build the Kansas City memorial, one of the world’s largest.

These commemorations in the 1920s and 30s shaped Americans’ view of the war, said Michael Neiberg, chair of war studies in the Department of National Security and Strategy at the U.S. Army War College. Then as now, new technology, non-state actors, and terrorism were critical factors in global combat, he added. The Great War also gave “a boost” to nationalistic movements, according to Margaret MacMillan, a University of Toronto professor of history.

Generally, Nieberg said, Americans felt that the war had been worth fighting, but the peace ultimately did not prove worth the sacrifice. “It’s a messy war,” and “not as easy to understand” as World War II, he said.

He said the museum began collecting artifacts in 1920 and now has some 300,000 objects that offer interpretation and perspective on World War I and its time.

Against that backdrop, recent World War I centennial commemorations offer “a contemporary conversation for us” at a time when there are no living soldiers or politicians left to help us dissect the cataclysm that was the Great War, Naylor said. The National World War I Museum takes a global approach to the war unlike the more parochial outlook that European museums use, he said.

It is the only American museum solely dedicated to preserving the objects, history, and personal experiences of the first world war.