National World War I Museum ends first year with a bang

11-10-2007

 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – After nearly a year of success beyond expectations, the National World War I Museum at Kansas City’s Liberty Memorial has topped off the year with the acquisition of a rare jewel for its collection – a battle-scarred WWI tank.

 

“To find such a rare artifact intact except for its actual battle damage, 90 years after it was built, gives us a great deal to celebrate on our upcoming first anniversary,” said Brian Alexander, who was recently appointed as the Museum’s new President/CEO, “especially considering that we made the acquisition as Armistice Day approaches.”

 

Alexander, who comes to the National WWI Museum with more than 30 years of experience in museum management, will officially begin his duties on Nov. 12, the day after Veterans Day – originally known as Armistice Day, commemorating the official end of WWI on Nov. 11, 1918.

 

The French-made Renault FT-17 tank, which still bears its camouflage markings and a huge hole left by German artillery, fills a key gap in the Museum’s world-class collection of WWI weapons, uniforms, writings and other objects. A tank was the only major historically significant exhibit that has eluded the Museum since its organizers began collecting artifacts in 1920.

 

Since it opened to the public Dec. 2, 2006, a sampling of the museum’s successes includes:

• Attendance and revenues beyond expectations: Total projected attendance for fiscal year 2007 is 167,000 paying guests.
• School buses lining up for the museum’s educational mission, as more than 18,000 students will have visited by the end of FY07 during school-sponsored trips.
• National exposure for the museum and for Kansas City, with more than 100 media outlets covering the museum’s opening.
• Ongoing growth for museum programs, with projected revenue for memberships reaching 95 percent above budget, and special-event revenues in FY07 at 63 percent over budget.

The Kansas Citians who worked for years to establish the National WWI Museum have long maintained that the Great War was a crucial formative event whose devastation shaped the entire century to come, with repercussions far beyond its duration from 1914 to 1918.

 

That belief has been borne out, not only by the greater-than-expected public impact of the museum itself, but by the attention that WWI continues to receive from historians, nearly a century later.

 

According to a recent review, for example, the author Alan Kramer’s new book on World War I, Dynamic of Destruction, makes the case that “the two world wars may be regarded as a single four-decade trauma … World War I was considerably more than simply a new industrial form of warfare that brutalized the modern world.” (See “Extermination States,” New York Times Book Review, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2007.)

 

Renault FT-17 light tanks first saw battle in 1918. American tank forces used the French-made Renaults – possibly including the one obtained by the Museum.

 

“What makes this the perfect tank for our collection is that it will be an important tool for interpreting World War I,” said Doran Cart, Museum Curator. “You can see the original camouflage paint and the registration numbers that identified the tank. With those markings we have a good chance to learn about its exact battle history. We can’t wait to do in-depth research into its history.”

 

A preliminary study of the tank revealed an unexpected connection to Kansas City. Scribbled inside the tank is the name Jonathon M. Ashwell, who turned out to have been a U.S. Army soldier who did maintenance on the tank – and whose home address was listed as Kansas City.

 

The tank was obtained in 1920 by an American from the French government and was on display in San Francisco for several years at the M.H. de Young Museum. The tank was owned by several other private collectors and eventually obtained in 1984 by Hayes Otoupalik of Missoula, Montana, from whom the Museum purchased it for $225,000. The Museum must still raise an additional $175,000 to complete the acquisition.

 

An anonymous donor gave $125,000 for the down payment. The additional $175,000 that must be raised will cover the remaining cost of the tank, its transportation and for exhibit installation.

 

“The acquisition of this tank was a once-in-a-generation opportunity – maybe our last chance. The Museum purchased it with only a portion of funding in hand,” explains Eli Paul, Museum Director. “We have confidence that with the proven success of the new museum – and the importance of this tank – our patrons will come forward with donations to help make this acquisition a reality.”

 

Donations of any amount are welcome and are tax deductible. Checks can be made payable to the Liberty Memorial Association – designated to the Tank Acquisition Fund –  and mailed to PO Box 411475, Kansas City, MO 64141-1475.

 

Officially designated the National WWI Museum by the 108^th Congress, the 50,000-square-foot core Museum exhibit and companion research center and archives are housed directly beneath the historic Liberty Memorial. The 217-foot Liberty Memorial Tower and two exhibit halls were built by the citizens of Kansas City and dedicated, in 1926, by President Calvin Coolidge.

 

[Back to Press Releases Main]