Evening for Educators: WWI America

Come anytime from 5:00 - 8:00pm, but you won’t want to miss these events:

5:00 pm - 6:30 pm Refreshments in the Grand Lobby

Featured Activities

5:00 pm - 7:30 pm Explore the exhibits, and be sure to try your hand at the featured activities:

WWI America

• Connect with local organizations like the Texas Historical Commission and the Texas Military Forces Museum for classroom resources for WWI and Texas.
• Crack the Code: Participate in a STEM-focused activity to practice WWI encoding and decoding techniques. Use cryptanalysis techniques to help an Allied spy navigate out of a maze to safety.
• WWI in the Classroom: Take WWI back to your classroom with content, lesson ideas, and teaching strategies from local AP US History teacher.  
• Create Your Own: Using WWI primary sources as inspiration, craft a Liberty Garden Propaganda Poster.

Texas From Above

• Using a tactile photo frame, create new compositions using the photographs on display as inspiration.
• Test your pilot skills as you "fly" a Cessna Redbird flight simulator, the same plane flown by featured photographer Jay B. Sauceda. Take a scenic tour over the Chisos Mountains in Big Bend National Park, or try to land your plane at the airport on Mustang Island on the coast.

7:30 pm Prize Drawing

Take time to have a second look, or explore a different area of the Museum exhibits until 8:00 pm.

WWI America presents the stories of a divisive and transformational America told through original artifacts, images, voices, music, hands-on exploration, and multimedia presentations.

Before the War

Americans watched warily as Europe’s armies went to war in the summer of 1914. Although more than two years would pass before the country engaged militarily, the United States began providing support for war-torn Europe almost immediately. Advocates for “preparedness” clashed with newly formed groups seeking peace.

America At War, 1917–1918

Within a compressed 19-month period beginning in April 1917, the United States amassed a military force of more than four million men. Nearly two million served overseas. Opposition to the war continued, but the government stirred up patriotism through its Committee on Public Information. War recruitment surged and dissent was forcibly suppressed.

After the War

With the signing of the armistice on November 11, 1918, Americans celebrated victory even while extraordinary challenges loomed. Anarchist bombings, racial violence, labor unrest, and a return of the influenza epidemic made 1919 one of the most volatile years in American history.

Witnesses

Throughout the exhibit, visitors encounter “Witnesses,” people who represent the complex and divergent stories of the day. Famous and little-known stories include social reformer Jane Addams, African American activist W. E. B. DuBois, evangelist Billy Sunday, WWI volunteer nurse and driver Alice O’Brien, movie star Mary Pickford, and entrepreneur-activist Madam C. J. Walker. Original artifacts, quotes, and stories remind visitors of the powerful role of individuals in an era characterized by mass movements.

1 airplane. 1 pilot. 36 hours of flying time. 569.6 gallons of fuel. 44,000 photographs. The borders of Texas as you have never seen them before.

The diversity of the 3,822 miles of Texas border lands and waters is perhaps nowhere more clear than from a breathtaking aerial perspective. Stunning large format photographs, intimate salon-style groupings, and a first person diary from pilot Jay B Sauceda bring the borders of Texas to life in this portrait of the state’s boundary lines.

Throughout Texas From Above, visitors will explore the rich and diverse geography of the state through captivating large and small scale images taken on Sauceda's journey. These photos capture the essence of our expansive state’s beauty — demonstrating the color, contrast, and uniqueness of a topography that changes drastically from one region to the next.

Hands-on and digital interactives take a closer look at the striking scenes Sauceda captured and offer a deep dive into his extensive catalog. Artifacts and media pieces explore the tools and expertise Sauceda relied on as well as his motivations for tackling the project. Whether hunting for details, charting a flight route, or discovering how simulations can assist pilots in learning to fly, Texas From Above will immerse visitors not only in the beauty of the state, but in the process that one person took to document that beauty.