Above you rises Liberty Memorial, a 217-foot tower visible from miles across the Kansas City skyline and home to the largest collection of World War One artifacts and documents in the world. Let that sink in: not in Paris, not in London, not in Berlin — but here in Kansas City, Missouri, you will find the most comprehensive museum dedicated to the war that reshaped the 20th century. The memorial was conceived immediately after the Armistice, and in November 1921, five Allied commanders — including Ferdinand Foch, John Pershing, and Britain's Duke of Northumberland — came to Kansas City to lay the cornerstones.
It was the only time all five commanders of the Allied forces stood together in the same place after the war. The museum beneath the tower opened in 2006 and was designated the official national WWI museum by Congress. Its signature exhibit features a glass floor over 9,000 poppy capsules, one for each thousand soldiers who died.
Riding the elevator to the top of the tower on a clear day reveals the full sweep of the city laid out below you — a city that took the weight of the Great War seriously enough to build something this extraordinary.