The National WWI Museum and Memorial has shifted its programs and activities to the digital realm so Kanas City and people across the nation can learn and understand the enduring impact of the Great War. Though the Museum remains closed through April 24, the organization continues to offer a variety of interactive opportunities.
Photo: Visit KC
Mrs. Wilson’s Knitting Circle
A mainstay of the organization’s programming for several years, the Museum and Memorial has shifted its bi-monthly program Mrs. Wilson’s Knitting Circle to a virtual event at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 4.
Just as in WWI, knitting is a way to share comfort and bring a community of friends together to talk, laugh and create. For this edition, participants will take their knitting needles online as Camille Kulig, Public Program Specialist, discusses the rise of Modern art in the 1910s and 1920s. The event is open to the public and to knitting beginners/experts. RSVPs are encouraged.
Virtual Tours and Online Exhibits
While the Museum is currently closed, the public is welcome to tour the Main Gallery and the exterior grounds virtually. In collaboration with Google Arts & Culture, the organization offers three tours featuring audio in addition to the ability to enlarge/zoom in to different aspects of the galleries and the exterior Memorial.
Additionally, the Museum and Memorial offers more than a dozen interactive online exhibitions covering a variety of subjects, including African Americans in WWI, the Christmas Truce of 1914, the role of food in the Great War and much more.
These interactive elements are available here.
Education Resources
The Museum and Memorial offers a variety of education-specific offerings including a recently-added section detailing the 1918 flu pandemic and the lessons that can be applied today as well as a video with discussion questions.
The Museum and Memorial has a robust and searchable Teaching Resource Databasethat features primary source materials, articles, images, video and much more. Content can be searched by grade level, subject and type.
Additionally, the organization has collaborated with teachers and professors across the world to develop dozens of free/downloadable lesson plans for students of all grade levels. Subjects range from examining patriotism through propaganda posters, how technology changed the way WWI was fought, the impact of animals on the war and much more.
Social Media
The Museum and Memorial offers hundreds of viewable presentations, lectures and special ceremonies on its YouTube channel for free. The organization set a record in 2019 with more than 10 million minutes watched from residents in more than 200 countries and territories across the world. The range of topics is immense with presentations from internationally renowned scholars and authors.
Additionally, the organization continues to create content specifically for social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Recently, the organization shared a special children’s Story Time program on Facebook featuring a reading of Bold & Brave: Ten Heroes Who Won Women the Right to Vote.
The National WWI Museum and Memorial holds the most comprehensive collection of World War I objects and documents in the world and is the second- oldest- public museum dedicated to preserving the object, history and personal experiences of the war.
