SAME GOALS, UNIQUE APPROACHES

   

A Public History Study of two World War I museums:

The Musée de la Grande Guerre du Pays de Meaux, France                        

 and

The National World War I museum in 
Kansas City, Missouri          

Although expressed differently, the museums have markedly similar mission statements. 

   The KC museum hopes to encourage involvement of a diverse public in decision making, and doing that by presenting the Great War through the perspective of the people that lived it (WWI website).  

   The Meaux museum defines itself as a museum of history and Society where we learn from the past to improve on the future and, and again, to do this by telling the stories of the people, on the front and at home. (Grande Guerre website). 

  This project is a study of the unique approaches used by the two museums in pursuit of their common goals. Both want to commemorate and instruct, both want the voices of the people who lived it to tell the story, both want to reach a diverse audience and have an impact on that audience, to cause the audience to reflect and question.

Start here or follow the links on the left to read about the study of the two museums.