☰Liberty Memorial and National WWI Museum

The only museum in the United States dedicated to the First World War, and a surprisingly powerful one. The glass floor above a field of 9,000 red poppies — one for every 1,000 Allied and Central Powers deaths — stops most visitors in their tracks. The exhibits trace the origins of the war through to its consequences with clarity and restraint. The 217-foot memorial tower, completed in 1926, offers views across the city and south toward Union Station. This is Kansas City's civic landmark par excellence — a serious monument to a war Americans often overlook.