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"Doughboy." "The Great War." "Over There."
You may have heard these words or phrases before, yet never knew where they came from. They all originated from a time when the United States took its place on the world stage with its entry into World War I. As part of the centennial anniversary of the 1914-1918 war, the Longmont Museum starts a new special exhibit today called, “WWI: Longmont & the Great War.”
“It is the 100th anniversary of America’s involvement, and we wanted to celebrate that,” commented Jerod Thompson, curator of exhibitions.
The exhibit includes five sections related to the war: Home Front, War in the Sky, War on the Ground, Medical Care, and After the War, as well as a number of real objects from the museum’s dedicated collection of 17,000 3-D objects.
“This exhibit was built totally from scratch and uses a lot of objects from our collection and it was great to get the stuff out to share with others,” noted Thompson.
Over 450 people from Longmont served in WWI, as well as many non-combatants who aided the war effort here in Longmont. The museum selected approximately 20 of these people to create “character cards” that each visitor is provided at entry to the exhibit. The cards provide back story of the person and his or her connection to the war.
“We tried to capture not just the soldier’s experience, but also those who were involved on the home front,” noted Heather Thorwald, exhibit registrar. “For example, we have on loan the uniform of a woman from Platteville who was a Red Cross volunteer and was awarded a medal for her efforts.”
In addition to original objects, there is a 2/3 scale replica of a Jenny Curtiss airplane that was the primary aircraft used for training pilots, as well as giant 3-D renditions of WWI propaganda posters.
“We got the original poster images from the Library of Congress, separated them in Photoshop, printed the pieces in house, and volunteers painted and put them together,” explained Thompson.
Programming connected to the exhibit features several history lectures, a special screening of “Wings” with orchestral accompaniment, and a Views and Brews series of films that are about WWI or take place during that time period.
The opening reception is tonight from 6 to 8 p.m. It includes a cash bar and complimentary appetizers from Cheese Importers.
“The exhibit gives a good sense of how a place like Longmont, thousands of miles away from the conflict, was connected to what was going on, and it marks the beginning of Longmont starting to reach out to the world outside of it,” observed Thorwald.
