The National WWII Museum

The idea

Plans began in 1964 with a remark by Eisenhower about the Higgins boat

Plans for the museum date to 1964, when Dwight Eisenhower told the historian Stephen Ambrose that the inventor of the LCVP, or Higgins boat, "won the war for us". The boats were designed, tested and built by Andrew Higgins and Higgins Industries in New Orleans.

Opening

It was dedicated as the National D-Day Museum on June 6, 2000

The museum was dedicated as the National D-Day Museum on June 6, 2000, the 56th anniversary of the landings. It stood in the former Weckerling Brewery building, built in 1888. In 2003 Congress designated it America's official National WWII Museum.

Pavilions

The museum grew through a series of pavilions, the last opened in 2023

After 2007 the museum added the Solomon Victory Theater, the Stage Door Canteen and the American Sector, all opened in 2009. The US Freedom Pavilion: The Boeing Center followed in 2013. The Liberation Pavilion, begun in 2018, did not open until 2023.

700,000visitors, nearly, in fiscal year 2016

Aircraft

A Spitfire and a C-47 hang from the ceiling of the first pavilion

Several aircraft are displayed in the large atrium of the Louisiana Memorial Pavilion, including a Supermarine Spitfire and a Douglas C-47 Skytrain suspended from the ceiling. A Higgins boat is also usually on display. The third floor has an observation deck.

Dog tags

A dog tag opens the story of one person named on it

Visitors may collect a dog tag upon entering the museum. Touching it to screens within various exhibits shows information about the experience of the person named on the tag. A 4-D film, Beyond All Boundaries, gives an overview of the war.