A Site Visit: Wright Museum of World War II

Yesterday, the wife took me to the Write Museum. It was a bit of a drive, but it was worth it.

Having grown up visiting museums with my parents, I have expectations of what a museum is.

This did not have that feel to it.

According to the front desk, the museum came into existence because Mr. Wright needed a place to store is "collection" so he built the museum and opened it to the public.

What Mr. Write had was a small collection of WWII vehicles. Those include a Sherman and a Pershing tank, along with a jeep, half-track, WWII motorcycles and a bit more. And those are absolutely stunning.

There are tracks in the parking lot from where they drove the Pershing into the building last week.

Besides the Military Gallery, they have a "Home Front" and "Time Tunnel." The home front is a collection of artifacts from 1939-1944 showing a bit about what was available at the time. There were a few recreations of scenes as well.

The time tunnel was the best museum piece. It was broken into a series of rooms, each room representing a particular year. The rooms gave context to what was happening.

For example, there was a display of about Joe Louis defending his title for the 17th time. In the next room, Joe Louis is Private Louis, charging at you on a war poster. This helped to show how everybody was participating in winning the war.

There are many artifacts showing how the famous were donating and giving, all to get the people to give as well.

I think the most poignant display was a poster from the 1940s of a boy, wearing a Medal of Honor, a tear in his eye.

I had a few questions regarding some labels on the small arms. I do need to do a little research into the Japanese small arms of WWII, I missed almost every one of them.

It is worth a visit, if you have the time and are near enough. Not a great museum, but for $30 for two, not bad.

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