Now Open!

Put down the history books, turn off the History Channel, and celebrate real Clevelanders who made history during WWII, the seminal event of the 20th century!

The exhibit highlights the experiences of over 50 Clevelanders who tell the story of World War II from their own perspectives - from soldiers who never went over seas, to local Rosie the Riveters and children who studied world geography, even as the world was being torn apart.

Drawing on the Society’s own collections of World War II artifacts and archives, the exhibit features materials and oral histories collected especially for the exhibit from the people of Northeast Ohio to create nine listening areas including:

• Enlistees and Draftees: how and when individuals entered military service
• The War in the Air: bomber crews in European theater
• Production on the Home Front: wartime emergency workers
• From D-Day to VE Day in Europe: infantry who found their way across Europe
• War Brides: Romances spawned overseas
• The War in the Pacific: Pearl Harbor to Japanese occupation
• African Americans in the U.S. Military: Segregation during war time
• American Prisoners of War: military overseas and Japanese Americans at home
• WWII on the Homefront: Children's perspectives on the war and the effects of rationing 

Public Programs, running throughout the exhibit’s calendar, will bring some of these eyewitnesses to history to the museum for presentations, discussion sessions, and WWII movie screenings.

Plus, participants can enjoy an interactive family learning area, which features hands-on activities for kids and families, based on activities of school children during the war. Visitors can try their hand at separating scrap metal, shopping in a 1940s grocery store with ration coupons, counting old keys for a key collection, engaging in mock war stamp purchases to provide supplies and equipment for soldiers, creating a “victory garden,” and more!  

WWII veterans and their spouses are admitted free anytime. 

General admission is $8.50 for adults, $7.50 for seniors, $5 for children, ages 3 – 12 and students, and children under 3 and members are free. 

For more information, call 216-721-5722.

WWII: Up Front and Personal is sponsored by:

First Energy Foundation, the JAM Foundation, The Louise H. and David S. Ingalls Foundation, and the Thomas H. White Foundation, a Bank Trust.

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