Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 118.djvu/2074

 118 STAT. 2044 PUBLIC LAW 108–375—OCT. 28, 2004 Subtitle D—Matters Relating to Museums and Commemorations SEC. 1031. RECOGNITION OF THE LIBERTY MEMORIAL MUSEUM, KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, AS AMERICA’S NATIONAL WORLD WAR I MUSEUM. (a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following findings: (1) The Liberty Memorial Museum in Kansas City, Mis souri, was built in honor of those individuals who served in World War I in defense of liberty and the United States. (2) The Liberty Memorial Association, the nonprofit organization that originally built the Liberty Memorial Museum, is responsible for the finances, operations, and collec tions management of the Liberty Memorial Museum. (3) The Liberty Memorial Museum is the only public museum in the United States that exists for the exclusive purpose of interpreting the experiences of the United States and its allies in the World War I years (1914–1918), both on the battlefield and on the home front. (4) The Liberty Memorial Museum project began after the 1918 Armistice through the efforts of a large scale, grass roots civic and fundraising effort by the citizens of the Kansas City metropolitan area, including veterans of World War I. After the conclusion of a national architectural design competition, ground was broken in 1921, construction began in 1923, and the Liberty Memorial Museum was opened to the public in 1926. (5) In 1994, the Liberty Memorial Museum closed for a massive restoration and expansion project. The restored museum reopened to the public on Memorial Day in 2002 during a gala rededication ceremony. (6) Exhibits prepared for the original museum buildings presaged the dramatic, underground expansion of core exhi bition gallery space, with over 30,000 square feet of new interpretive and educational exhibits currently in development. The new exhibits, along with an expanded research library and archives, will more fully utilize the many thousands of historical objects, books, maps, posters, photographs, diaries, letters, and reminiscences of World War I participants that are preserved for posterity in the collections of the Liberty Memorial Museum. The new core exhibition is scheduled to open on Veterans Day in 2006. (7) The City of Kansas City, the State of Missouri, and thousands of private donors and philanthropic foundations have contributed millions of dollars to first build and later restore the Liberty Memorial Museum. The Liberty Memorial Museum continues to receive the strong support of residents from the States of Missouri and Kansas and across the United States. (8) Since its restoration and rededication in 2002, the Lib erty Memorial Museum has attracted thousands of visitors from across the United States and many foreign countries. (9) There remains a need to preserve in a museum setting evidence of the honor, courage, patriotism, and sacrifice of those Americans who offered their services and who gave their lives in defense of liberty during World War I, evidence of

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