The museum is located in part in the former Weckerling Brewery, designed by local architect William Fitzner, which was renovated and opened as the D-Day Museum on June 6, 2000, the 56th anniversary of D-Day, focusing on the amphibious invasion of Normandy. As the Higgins boats, vital to amphibious operations, were designed, built, and tested in New Orleans by Higgins Industries, the city was the natural home for such a project. Furthermore, New Orleans was the home of historian and author Stephen Ambrose, who spearheaded the effort to build the museum. Ambrose also wrote a book entitled D-Day in 1994, which describes the planning and execution of Operation Neptune, which was launched on June 6, 1944. The early emphasis of the museum on D-Day, the location of Higgins Industries, and Ambrose's connections to New Orleans were all factors in the museum being established in New Orleans.[6]
Museum description
In addition to opening a second gallery exploring the amphibious invasions of the Pacific War in the original building, known as the Louisiana Memorial Pavilion, the museum has since opened the Solomon Victory Theater, the John E. Kushner Restoration Pavilion, the US Freedom Pavilion: The Boeing Center, and the Campaigns of Courage pavilion. As of February 2022, the Liberation Pavilion is in construction.[7]
Within the large atrium of the Louisiana Memorial Pavilion several aircraft are on display, including a Supermarine Spitfire and a Douglas C-47 Skytrain suspended from the ceiling. A LCVP, or "Higgins boat," is also usually on display in this pavilion. The exhibits in this pavilion focus on the amphibious landings in the European theater of the war and on the contributions of the home front. The Louisiana Memorial Pavilion is also home to rotating temporary exhibits, as well as the immersive and interactive train car (part of the larger "Dog Tag Experience" interactive), which opened in 2013.
This part of the museum includes several permanent galleries, including the Home Front, Planning for D-Day, and the D-Day Beaches. The third floor of the Louisiana Memorial Pavilion includes an observation deck for closer viewing of the hanging aircraft.
In January 2013, the museum opened the US Freedom Pavilion: The Boeing Center, which is the now largest building on the campus.[8] The collection in the US Freedom Pavilion includes a B-17E Flying Fortress bomber, a B-25J Mitchell bomber, an SBD-3 Dauntless, a TBF Avenger, a P-51D Mustang, Corsair F4U-4 and an interactive submarine experience based on the final mission of the USS Tang.[8] The B-17E is the airplane dubbed My Gal Sal, famous for having been lost over Greenland and recovered 53 years later.[8] The US Freedom Pavilion was paid for with a $15 million donation from the Boeing Company and with a $20 million grant from the US Department of Defense with congressional approval.[9]
In December 2014, the museum opened the Road to Berlin portion of the Campaigns of Courage pavilion, focusing on the European theater of war. A Messerschmitt Bf 109 hangs in the building. The Road to Tokyo portion of this same pavilion, which focuses on the Pacific war, opened in 2015.[10] The entire pavilion, including both galleries, measures 32,000 square feet.[11]
In June 2017, a new exhibit, The Arsenal of Democracy, opened in the Louisiana Memorial Pavilion, dealing the experience on the Home Front.[12]
The museum also has plans to open what will be called the Liberation Pavilion by 2020 with assistance from the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art. Its goal would be to explore the "joys, costs, and meaning of liberation and freedom," as well as how the legacy of World War II affects us today. [needs update][13] The museum part of the Monuments Men and Women Museum Network, launched in 2021 by the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art.[14]
Currently, the National World War II Museum has several exhibits paying tribute to the different geographical locations of the war. Beginning with The Arsenal of Democracy exhibit, the museum encourages visitors to interact with the exhibits by placing the interactive dog tag given at the entrance of the exhibits on the provided screens. Each dog tag represents a person who fought in the war or contributed in some way. Each individual followed their own path, with information about that individual only available in the geographical area that corresponds to the person's history. The other interactive museum exhibits include Road to Tokyo, Road to Berlin, The D-Day Invasion of Normandy, and the U.S. Merchant Marine Gallery.[15] Each exhibit is tailored to reflect the environment of the specific area or function of the subject matter.
Tickets to the museum are available to purchase online. The prices range from $0 for children (under 5), World War II Veteran, and companion to a World War II Veteran to $20 for seniors, college students (with ID), active military, and active military spouse. The costlier admission is $27.50 for a senior (65+) to general admission of $30.00.[16] There are also various extra activities like guided tours or special exhibits that have different admission prices. Tickets can also be purchased onsite.[16]
Visitors to the museum are encouraged to allocate roughly 2½ to 3 hours to tour the museum. Upon arriving, visitors are encouraged to wait in line to board a train. The train is a simulation exhibit that mimics the experience of soldiers going off to war. In the train, the interactive dog tag is used to determine which individual a visitor will be following. The information is provided by screens on the back of the bench seats. Once the short train journey has ended, visitors are encouraged to explore the museum in whichever way they may choose. An award-winning 4-D film, Beyond All Boundaries, is shown in the Solomon Victory Theater and gives the visitor an overview of the war on every front. Other multimedia displays are integrated into most of the museum's exhibits, notably the dozens of video oral histories conducted with veterans of the war by museum staff. The museum currently houses two restaurants, the American Sector Restaurant & Bar and the Soda Shop.
The museum sponsors a wargaming club and holds a wargame convention each year called "Heat of Battle".[17] The museum hosts an annual robotics challenge where teams compete using the Lego Mindstorms components. The museum also hosts a World War II-themed quiz bowl tournament, which is televised on Cox 4 New Orleans.
Relation to New Orleans
Artillery and a "Higgins Boat" on display in the museum lobby
The museum closed for three months after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans on August 29, 2005, re-opening on December 3 of that year. A museum banner promoted the re-opening by proclaiming "We Have Returned," a phrase made famous by General Douglas MacArthur regarding his eventual return to the Philippines in 1944.
As of 2015, the museum is in the midst of a $400 million capital expansion campaign[18] called The Road to Victory: A Vision for Future Generations. The expansion has resulted in significant increases in attendance.[19] The Solomon Victory Theater, Stage Door Canteen, and American Sector restaurant opened in November 2009. The John E. Kushner Restoration Pavilion opened in June 2011.[20][21][22] The US Freedom Pavilion: The Boeing Center opened to the public in 2013, followed by the opening of the first phase of the Campaigns of Courage pavilion in 2014. The second phase of the Campaigns of Courage Pavilion, Road to Tokyo, opened in 2015.[10] The final project in the expansion will be the Liberation Pavilion. Initially, the intended date of completion of the expansion project was 2015, but has since been pushed back due to a series of delays causing it to be set to finish in 2022.[23]
Visitation at the museum continues to grow, with 406,251 in 2010[24] having grown to nearly 700,000 in fiscal year 2016.[18]
The museum helps the economy of Louisiana substantially with a total of about $132 million annually. The museum also is one of New Orleans' biggest employers. It directly supports 300 jobs and indirectly supports another 142 jobs.[25]
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The landing craft, vehicle, personnel (LCVP) or Higgins boat was a landing craft used extensively by the Allied forces in amphibious landings in World War II. Typically constructed from plywood, this shallow-draft, barge-like boat could ferry a roughly platoon-sized complement of 36 men to shore at 9 knots (17 km/h). Men generally entered the boat by climbing down a cargo net hung from the side of their troop transport; they exited by charging down the boat's lowered bow ramp.
Higgins Industries was the company owned by Andrew Higgins based in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Higgins Industries is most famous for the design and production of the Higgins boat, an amphibious landing craft referred to as LCVP, which was used extensively in the Allied forces' D-Day Invasion of Normandy. Higgins also manufactured PT boats, and produced the first American airborne lifeboat, the model A-1 lifeboat. The company also had a subsidiary architectural firm that designed manufacturing buildings - most famously the Michoud Assembly Facility.
Andrew Jackson Higgins was an American businessman and boatbuilder who founded Higgins Industries, the New Orleans-based manufacturer of "Higgins boats" during World War II. The company started out as a small boat-manufacturing business, and became one of the biggest industries in the world with upwards of eighty thousand workers and government contracts worth nearly three hundred fifty million dollars. General Dwight Eisenhower is quoted as saying, "Andrew Higgins ... is the man who won the war for us. ... If Higgins had not designed and built those LCVPs, we never could have landed over an open beach. The whole strategy of the war would have been different." Adolf Hitler recognized Higgins war efforts in ship production and bitterly dubbed him the "New Noah".
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Enigma machine on display
Norden bombsight on display
Higgins boat (LCVP) display
The Louisiana Memorial Pavilion as seen from Camp St. at Andrew Higgins Dr.
Entrance to the Solomon Victory Theatre
Air raid shelter in front of museum
Portion of the Atlantic Wall on the museum's campus
M2A1 display
1934 Opel sedan in winter camouflage
