High-tech home for an old war ; One of the world's great collections of World War I artifacts has an updated venue in Kansas City ALL Edition

• Published in: The Christian Science monitor (1983)
• Main Author: David Conrads Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston, Mass The Christian Science Publishing Society (d/b/a "The Christian Science Monitor"), trusteeship under the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts 06.12.2006
• Subjects: Military history; KANSAS CITY, MO
• ISSN: 0882-7729; 2166-3262

The museum's centerpiece is the Horizon Theater, with its 100- foot-long, highly detailed tableau of no man's land - the unclaimed ground between opposing trenches - complete with four British soldiers trudging along duck boards through a muddy, devastated landscape littered with abandoned artillery and the detritus of war. Onto a long canvas screen behind, and blending with the tableau, sound and images tell of America's decision to enter the European conflict and the environment in which the soldiers found themselves. Lighting and sound effects dramatically simulate the horror that was the Western Front. At two interactive media tables, visitors can take part in activities that deal with diplomacy and the forming of alliances and the tactics and strategies of war. They can learn about aerial photography and camouflage, learn how a Lewis machine gun operated, create a propaganda poster, or take a crack at decoding the Zimmerman Telegram. The infamous German communique tried to persuade Mexico to go to war against the US, but served instead to fuel the American public's anger toward Germany. Extensive diagrams, graphs, and maps throughout the galleries, along with a month-by-month timeline, relate factual information about the war. Animated video panels illustrate major battles. Mr. Appelbaum has created more than 100 installations around the world. Perhaps his most acclaimed project is the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, which opened in Washington, D.C., in 1993. Not content merely to present visitors with the facts of the events, Appelbaum integrated the displays in the Holocaust Museum with the building's architecture and used a variety of techniques to tell a powerful story and craft a singular experience for the visitor. One of the most haunting displays is a huge mound of shoes that belonged to anonymous Holocaust victims.