"Into the Trenches" and "Epilogue" Open to the Public

These Main Gallery updates feature new technology and stories showcasing the enduring impact of WWI.
05/07/2024
Trenches

The National WWI Museum and Memorial announced two Main Gallery exhibit areas that will open to the public on Tuesday, May 7. “Epilogue: A World Transformed” and “Into the Trenches” will reopen to feature new technology and stories showcasing the enduring impact of WWI. These renovations tell new and interesting narratives from WWI and create a richer and more immersive visitor experience.

  • Epilogue: A World Transformed: “Epilogue: A World Transformed” is the final physical space visitors encounter in the Main Gallery. Projected using state-of-the-art technology on the back and side walls of the Epilogue room, a narrative environmental film surrounds guests with large-scale, floor to ceiling imagery, spoken word, sound design and music to provoke an understanding of the outcomes, continuing effects and challenges experienced in the 20th century and today, set off by the events of WWI.
     
    Modern photograph of four people sitting or standing in the center of a room, facing away from the viewer, while a video is being projected onto three walls around them - currently a scene of a wide green field or grassland.

     
  • Into the Trenches: Guests can now step inside the trenches and immerse themselves in five different trench settings. Additional cast figures and props, created using 3D scans of live models, have been added to enhance the experience. A new short, animated film details war plans like the Schlieffen Plan, which envisioned a quick-moving offensive leading to a rapid victory. A second video shows archival materials of destroyed trenches and the true terrors of trench warfare.
     
    Modern photograph of a large opening in a museum exhibit that leads to a life-size cutaway model of a WWI trench. A young white person wearing a blue suit is walking away from the exhibit.

     

“We are thrilled about the reopening of ‘Into the Trenches’ and the new immersive video in ‘Epilogue.’ Visitors who have experienced these two exhibit areas in the past will be blown away by the upgrades to technology and the way that we tell the stories from WWI,” said Dr. Christopher Warren, Vice President of Curatorial Affairs and Chief Curator of the National WWI Museum and Memorial.

This phase of construction follows the updates that opened in Nov. 2023 to “America Mobilizes,” the interactive tables and more, plus the recent renovation to the Lower Level that opened in May 2023, featuring the Bergman Family Gallery and Open Storage Center.

Phased construction will continue into 2025. The Museum and Memorial will remain open and guest impact is anticipated to be minimal.