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Join us for a half-day symposium celebrating the history of The National WWII Museum, from the founders' original idea to the completion of its final pavilion. This symposium will look at the founding of the Museum and the 2000 Grand Opening of The National D-Day Museum to the decision to expand and become The National WWII Museum. Panelists will discuss how the new mission and its vision of expansion became a reality, as the Museum grew to seven pavilions over seven acres in downtown New Orleans area and widened its digital reach. The symposium will close with a discussion of the new Liberation Pavilion, the Museum’s highly anticipated capstone exhibit hall.

This in-person and virtual program is free and open to the public. Registration is required.

On Saturday, November 4, the Museum will also be hosting a Family and Military Appreciation Block Party.

The Symposium is part of the Museum's D-Day to Liberation: Road to Victory Celebration presented by Past and Present Board Chairs of The National WWII Museum.

Building The National WWII Museum: From Conception to Capstone

8:30 a.m. – 8:45 a.m. | Welcome and Introductions

• Colonel Michael Bell, USA (Ret.), PhD, Executive Director of the Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy

8:45 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. | Founding of The National WWII Museum

• Gordon H. "Nick" Mueller, PhD, Museum President & CEO Emeritus

9:30 a.m. – 10:15 a.m. | Founding of The National WWII Museum Roundtable

• Exploring the journey to the Grand Opening of The National D-Day Museum to the decision to expand to The National WWII Museum
  • Chair: Gordon H. "Nick" Mueller, PhD
  • Panelists: Diana Bajoie; Guenter Bischof, PhD; Donald T. "Boysie" Bollinger; Hon. Jacquelyn "Jackie" Clarkson

10:15 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. | Break

10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. | Expanding America’s National WWII Museum

• How the vision of expansion for The National WWII Museum became reality
  • Chair: Colonel Peter D. Crean, USA (Ret.), Vice President of Education and Access, The National WWII Museum
  • Panelists: Bob Farnsworth; Donald L. Miller, PhD; Gordon H "Nick" Mueller, PhD; Marc Pachter; Stephen J. Watson

11:30 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. | Break

11:45 a.m. – 12:45 p.m. | Creating Liberation Pavilion

• The culmination of over three decades of planning, the capstone pavilion is a great accomplishment that took many to bring it to fruition
  • Chair: Colonel Michael Bell, USA (Ret.), PhD
  • Panelists: Erin Clancey, Eliot Cohen, PhD, Patrick Gallagher, and Gordon H "Nick" Mueller, PhD

12:45 p.m. – 1:45 p.m. | Program Conclusion; Book Signing

• Lunch for speakers to follow