It made sense to end our trip in New Orleans. Having been there seven years ago and not visiting this museum – I wanted a whole day to visit. Not necessarily to spend the whole day there – but not to have to rush off to the airport in the early afternoon.
We were just a few blocks away, so we just walked over, we had returned our car at the airport upon arrival in NOLA, it was nice just to walk around. Joel has a friend who is the attorney for Jenny Craig – yes, the real woman. She is originally from NOLA and has set up the Institute for the Study of War and Democracy at the museum. So we ended up having a VIP experience, which is a wonderful way to see any museum.
Initially the museum was going to be dedicated to Andrew Higgins, a local boat builder who supplied many boats to the war effort. Here is his famous Higgins transport boat. This is what landed troops and materiel on the Islands of the South Pacific as well as D-day in Normandy.
Here was another boat he built. I’m sorry, I don’t remember what this is called. This boat was found rotting somewhere in Texas and is being prepared and renovated. This hall isn’t open yet, but this will be an experiential hall – mostly for students.
Yes, the names of both boats and airplanes were very irreverent back in the day, the planes also had those pretty pinup girls on them. Speaking of school children. A large private school was there the same time we were, it was wonderful seeing them there, running around, gleaning information.
Our friend Bob paid a lot of money to have this white granite brick on the floor of the museum in honor of his father. Now the bricks are outside surrounding the museum as well. John was assigned to the USS Shaw, which was being retrofitted in Pearl Harbor and was attacked that fateful day. No one was on board, so although the boat was heavily damaged, no one was killed on it. It was refreshed and put back in service. John then spent 4 years aboard boats in the Pacific, supplying the Marines as the fought from one Atoll to another. He survived, came home and started a family.
The museum is a real gift to the city of New Orleans, early on it was decided to make this the national WWII museum, so a lot of federal money goes here. There was plenty of space in the warehouse district to expand and build this out. It is a great project. From the intro movie, through the two main galleries, the road to Berlin and the road to Tokyo. It celebrates Americas’ efforts in the war. Our docent, who was excellent, told us how he once had a group of Russians, who were upset that little mention was made of the Russians involvement in the war. His reply – well, ask the Russian government to make a museum in Moscow. Now, it is true that the Russians suffered the highest human casualties, both military and civilian estimated at 20 million. But maybe Stalin had something to do with that – we only have estimates, but they are roughly 60 million during his reign of terror.
Here we have the uniforms of the nursing corps in the pacific. As well as the famous Eames molded plywood splint. trying to solve a medical problem, the metal splints were causing more harm during the transport of the wounded soldiers. The moulded plywood was the perfect solution. From there Eames went on to make chairs using the same technique. I was thrilled to see this here, a good friend has part of a splint.
It’s not just displays in cases, you serpentine through the display which are built out to resemble, the alps, the battle of the Bulge, as well as the harrowing jungles of the islands of the Pacific.
There is a hall dedicated to the Homefront, I am hoping that this is original, it looks like it. You know me, always looking for the handcrafts. There is also a large hall with some of the airplanes, all in all, I highly recommend visiting this amazing museum. And that was it for wars this trip.
Another museum, not far from us, was the Southern Jewish Experience. A friend who grew up in NOLA mentioned this. We weren’t specifically looking for it, but when we stumbled upon it, we went in, paid our money and looked around. I think I mentioned that the north had many more Jews. I’m not sure that was true initially, I think the Jews were scattered everywhere, only after 1848 when large number arrived from Germany and then the rest of Europe did the north become the desired location to go to. Simply because you go where there are others like you. My family fleeing the pogroms in the Ukraine at the turn of the 20th c. went to Chicago because they knew people there. My friends’ grandfather first went to Selma, then New Orleans.
Here I found a wonderful crazy quilt. You can see the backing is falling apart.
Here is the explanation. Yellow fever was a real problem in the south, not so much in the north. Anyway, this is a beautiful quilt and I’m glad its’ here.
Leah