The National WWII Museum

945 Magazine Street, New Orleans, LA 70130

Website, tickets, social channels here

• The National WWII Museum is a global destination for history-minded museumgoers, offering a comprehensive overview of the American experience in the war on its huge New Orleans campus, first-class educational and public programs, and period entertainment.
• It is so large and compelling, however, that visitors who only allot a couple of hours will not fully experience the museum’s narrative power.  

The history

The road to the National WWII Museum started with a couple of University of New Orleans professors, one of whom was researching books about World War II and collecting oral history interviews and wartime objects of all kinds gifted to him by veterans. He was Stephen Ambrose, who went on to write canonical books about the war (Band of Brothers, Citizen Soldiers). His pal and colleague was Gordon H. “Nick” Mueller. They imagined a small museum near the New Orleans lakefront to both house Ambrose’s ephemera and honor Andrew Jackson Higgins, whose wartime plants around town supplied boats that fueled victories in both theaters of the war.

The National D-Day Museum opened on the anniversary of D-Day in 2000. Hundreds of veterans paraded in the streets. Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks helped cut the ribbon. The sole exhibit they all saw included some of Ambrose’s inherited objects (that original gallery, still housing some of those objects, closed in 2026 to be renovated in time for the 2027 D-Day anniversary). The museum was a hit from the beginning, and Mueller and Ambrose were already hearing that they should expand beyond the converted beer warehouse between Camp and Magazine streets in a not-great part of town.

The epic story of the making of the National WWII Museum – today occupying a seven-acre campus with a digital footprint regularly reaching tens of thousands of students of the war — is told in comprehensive detail in Mueller’s 2025 book Preserving the Legacy: Creating the National WWII Museum, which explains why the now-huge campus has become one of Louisiana’s primary tourist destinations. It’s sold in the many museum gift shops spread around campus. Read about it here.

I worked in the museum’s communications department for four years, my first post-journalism job. In that role, I read every digital word visitors wrote about their visits. The No. 1 takeaway from that time, which is still true today: Plan your time at the museum well. Even if you’re a skimmer (definition here), and even if it’s your only option in a tight itinerary, showing up at 3 p.m. and expecting a satisfactory visit is folly and will only spark planning regret and a desire to return and budget more time.

For visitors with an affinity for the subject matter and the patience to absorb the story, the museum should be a two-day experience, which is why they built a hotel next door.

Overview

Depending on how much time you have, there is a narrative to the museum that illuminates the story of the war. I will follow it here as a way to organize my overview.

L.W. “Pete” Kent Train Car Experience

Once you’ve completed ticketing (order online in advance to avoid a long wait on busy days) in the Louisiana Memorial Pavilion, begin your journey at the train car, but only if the line is short. This attraction is intended to simulate the ride that soldiers-to-be would’ve taken to boot camp. It’s clever but limited as an attraction and only worth your time if there is minimal wait. The train car’s real purpose is to encourage visitors to enter an email address to follow the Dog Tag Experience, and then continue the experience once they’re left the museum. Calling as it does on the museum’s collections, the Dog Tag Experience is a neat “extra” that allows visitors to engage with one of about 40 participants in the war, including Bob Hope, Ernie Pyle, and Jimmy Stewart. There are kiosks in several places around the museum, and the soldier or witness selected (or selected for you) in the train car will pop up again as the war proceeds, and as you follow the war around the globe. There is an opt-out button at some point in the registration process so you don’t get marketing emails from the museum. I advise that you not opt out, at least for a while. The museum’s email program is excellent and will give you an overview of all of the secondary and virtual experiences the institution offers, especially educational and public programs, many of which are streamed online for free.

The Arsenal of Democracy: The Herman and George R. Brown Salute to the Home Front  

After exiting the train car, take the stairs or elevator to the LMP’s second level. There, you’ll be nose-to-nose with a C-47 nicknamed “096.” It has a remarkable story (flew on D-Day, Operation Market Garden, Battle of the Bulge) that’s told in a kiosk on the third level. Warbird lovers will want to read every word and watch the videos of its last flight. Back on level two, enter the Arsenal of Democracy, which walks visitors through the war’s prelude, Pearl Harbor, and the massive effort made to arm the Allies for the fight. Must-see galleries here include:

• The graphic demonstration, in the Gathering Storm Gallery, of how comparatively puny America’s armed services were at the start of the war.
• The United but Unequal: I Am an American Gallery that discusses stateside Japanese internment and the double-victory efforts by Black soldiers during the war.
• The Manufacturing Victory Gallery details the might of the domestic war machine and offers a brief introduction to women in that workforce.
• And, almost hidden as if it were a secret (the entrance is back-left if you’re looking for it from the exhibit exit), there’s a small gallery dedicated to the Manhattan Project.

Departing the Arsenal of Democracy, make your move across Andrew Higgins Boulevard on the Horatio Alger Association American Spirit Bridge. As you approach the pavilion at its far end, you’ll hear the sounds of maritime traffic, a prelude to the US Merchant Marine Gallery, which is a bit of a bottleneck on busy days, but important recognition for a sometimes-undersung service branch. A museum volunteer will direct you to the next pavilion.

Campaigns of Courage Pavilion

The Road to Tokyo is upstairs, the Road to Berlin is below. Each introduces the key players in each theater and, turn-by-turn, takes visitors through hell and back.

In RTB, the marquee gallery is dedicated to the Battle of the Bulge, but before you get there don’t overlook two sublime things: One is a hole in the ceiling of the Air War Gallery over which silhouetted aircraft occasionally pass. The other is a small glass case in the D-Day Theater. Accompanied by Ernie Pyle’s words, it contains artifacts that would’ve been found on the beach after the invasion – a helmet, a fork, an unexploded grenade, an unsent V-mail envelope. In RTT, a must-see display case holds letters, photos, and service ephemera from Shreveport’s James Willard Oglesby, who died in the Pacific. The photo there of James and his bride, Margaret, whom he married before shipping out, is the summary of thousands of hearts the war broke. The concluding gallery dedicated to the atomic bombs is a somber finale to the narrative so far (the music playing here is “An Ending (Ascent)” from Brian Eno’s 1983 album Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks), and sets the stage for the Liberation Pavilion.

Liberation Pavilion

Because the museum’s mission is to tell the American experience in the war, references to the Holocaust were intentionally limited in the museum as it stood before the Liberation Pavilion came along to tell the fuller story. The Allied discovery of the camps is covered in the final video display in Road to Berlin, illustrating its impact on the advancing Americans. Anne Frank’s reaction to news of the D-Day invasion is a small, easily overlooked section of the D-Day gallery in RTB, opposite the Ernie Pyle case. Together, they illustrate the invasion’s stakes and horrific human costs. The Liberation Pavilion amplifies those emotions, with galleries devoted to the camps, the Amsterdam house where Anne Frank’s family hid from the Nazis until they didn’t, an exploration of the Monument Men efforts to recover artwork plundered by the Nazis, and a riveting small-theater video presentation about the camp liberators and those who were liberated (see below). The Liberation Pavilion also covers the period of postwar justice for the Axis perpetrators (easy to overlook, so don’t: the hood Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo wore at his hanging is there; how it made its way to New Orleans is a story worth reading). The pavilion’s overall theme is postwar reckoning, the war’s global impact, technology advanced by wartime necessity, and the war’s meaning today.

Lunch

There are a couple of outlets on-site that offer a repast or quick bite. The American Sector is a sit-down eatery with a menu of American favorites. It’s been a few years, but I was once an advocate for its gumbo. The Jeri Nims Soda Shop offers sandwiches and fare that kids or parents with young kids might eat (sandwiches, pastries, prepackaged salads, etc.) during breakfast and lunch hours. The Higgins Hotel & Conference Center across the street has several places that serve good food, including the grab-and-go Provisions. And the neighborhood is swamped with smoking-great places to eat if you want to go over the wall and splurge: Cochon and Peche are a couple. If you’ve got a gang and budget is an issue, order online from Magazine Pizza and some better-than-average pizzas, sandwiches, and salads will be ready for you when you arrive at either lunch or dinner. It’s a cost-effective way to expeditiously feed multiple generations at once, and it’s just steps from the museum galleries.

Drinks

Rosie’s on the Roof, atop the affiliated Higgins Hotel, would be one choice. Kilroy’s, on the ground level of the hotel, would be another. Neither will disappoint.  

Public programs

The National WWII Museum’s public programs are a national treasure, demonstrating the institution’s commitment to being the best destination for anyone interested in the war. Regular Meet the Author events take place in-person and online, and if one coincides with your visit, drop in at the end of your day on campus for some free light snacks, a couple of glasses of wine, and an hour or so of smart talk about an aspect of the war you’ve maybe never considered.  Semiregular symposia and conferences gather scholars and buffs from around the world to share their research and theories. An annual online field trip takes the lessons of the war to classrooms. Monthly Dinner with a Curator events combine cuisine with insight from experts.

Museum Store

The National WWII Museum’s retail operation, with several outlets on the property, is staggeringly comprehensive. The outlet in the Louisiana Memorial Pavilion mostly focuses on books. The shop outside the Beyond All Boundaries exit and the larger shop a little farther down the corridor leading to the US Freedom Pavilion, is where to find keepsakes and branded swag, including fabulous Rosie the Riveter garb. The store’s online portal has all of it. 

Website

An overhaul is underway but the content that’s been building up here can steal an afternoon and evening. Drawing on the deep scholarly bench of the Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy, “The War” blog crackles with expertly researched, well-written posts. The website is also a handy portal to multimedia assets such as archived public programs and podcasts. Assets for educators and students have their own deep drop-down. The museum’s distance-learning programs are an incredible resource for young scholars and the teachers who guide them. Start refreshing the “Events” dropdown as your visit approaches to consider attending an after-hours Meet the Author event or a period-correct entertainment performance, especially if there’s a Victory Belles show on the books.

Parking

There is paid street parking in the neighborhood, but the museum’s own garage is where to land — not the paid surface lots around the museum.

Extra things

There are several add-on experiences to consider during your visit to the National WWII Museum.

• First and foremost, I’d recommend the “4D” film Beyond All Boundaries, which recently got a tech refresh. Its opening in 2009 was the museum’s first move across the road to what would become its huge, seven-pavilion campus, and a bold statement about the institution’s ambitions. With it came BB’s Stage Door Canteen (a USO-themed theater for live period entertainment), and the American Sector restaurant, but Beyond All Boundaries is recommended as a great overview of the scope of the war and for its stagecraft sizzle. Listen carefully and you’ll hear Gary Sinise as the voice of Ernie Pyle. Encouraged to participate by buddy Tom Hanks, who served as one of the film’s executive producers, Sinise began a long affiliation with the museum with this role. For years, his Soaring Valor program organized planeloads of WWII veterans for visits to the museum, which treated them all like kings and queens. Beyond All Boundaries is also recommended as a cool, comfortable place to sit for 48 minutes to break up your gallery trek. Reservations can be made at ticketing for any showing throughout the day.
• A second recommendation is the Priddy Family Foundation Theater in the Liberation Pavilion, which strives to place the war in a contemporary context while illuminating Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms concept. The theater is another tech marvel and should be experienced if there’s time.
• Final Mission: USS Tang Submarine Experience, a submarine simulator with participatory elements, has never been a complete aesthetic success. The Tang’s story only really resonates if you invest fully in the stories of its crewmembers. Then, it can be quite moving.
• Not an add-on but worth the time: The Pam and Mark Rubin Liberation Theater in the Liberation Pavilion features the stories of those rescued from the extermination camps and those who liberated them. It’s a beautifully produced presentation combining oral histories from the museum’s holdings and the Shoah Foundation. It’s an ideal place to sit for 30 minutes and contemplate the lives lost in the camps and the lives lost or upturned on the road to liberate them.   

• On your passage to the US Freedom Pavilion at the conclusion of the main campus narrative, just outside one of the museum store outlets, there is a video display explaining the Bollinger Canopy of Peace, that structure towering over the campus just outside. Part of the original master plan for the museum dating back to before Hurricane Katrina, the canopy is more than a striking architectural statement (and awesome marketing beacon). Rather, it’s intended to symbolize the 80 years of comparative global calm that the sacrifices of the WWII generation paid for. Sure, there were plenty of wars during that time, but nothing on the scale of the wars they label with Roman numerals. After a day or two of immersing yourself in what the museum’s citizen soldiers accomplished in the 1940s, take a moment of reflection about the lives lived under the peace the canopy symbolizes.
• A tall pavilion packed with warbirds, the US Freedom Pavilion: The Boeing Center rewards brave visitors willing to ascend to the platforms that crisscross the space. Informational installations up there tell the stories of each of the planes. In the far corner of the pavilion is an awesome, interactive salute to Medal of Honor winners from the war. Each of their citations, which can be pulled up via touch screen, describe indescribable bravery.
• The Kushner Restoration Pavilion, located across Magazine Street from the main campus, is the permanent home of PT-305, a combat veteran patrol torpedo boat that was restored by volunteers in this space. It was returned to Lake Pontchartrain (where it was tested by Higgins Industries before shipping out to the European Theater) for rides and tours but is back on campus now as a most-macro STEM lesson from the war. Displays describe its service story and restoration. Below-deck tours are offered at an additional cost. More here. Also in Kushner is a new motor-pool display of other artifacts undergoing restoration. This is a must-see extra pavilion for seasoned gearheads, anyone raised on stories of PT-109 and PT-73, and science-curious kids.
• Take a minute when you’re in the Louisiana Memorial Pavilion to explore the Bayou to Battlefield: Higgins Industries During World War II exhibit devoted to a local contribution to victory – a point of pride for New Orleanians, and a succinct explainer about why there’s a WWII museum in New Orleans.

• The Malcolm S. Forbes Rare and Iconic Artifacts Gallery is a fascinating dive into the museum’s holdings, with artifacts of all kinds that are too awesome to stay in a vault. Also here is Voices from the Front, a newish experiment in AI-enhanced multimedia interaction with veterans and home front workers.
• The museum has two spaces for changing or traveling exhibits, some of which I’ve written about here and here. See what’s happening now here.
• For parents, don’t let the subject matter discourage a family visit. The theatrical staging of many galleries will enchant learners of all ages and the stories within them will offer a chance to connect kids to the sacrifices of their ancestors during the war. “Great grandpa was in the Battle of the Bulge when he was about your age,” is a great thing for a teenager to hear.
• There is a solution to your poor planning if you’ve only budgeted a couple of hours for the museum. Several guided tours are offered for an additional cost that give brisk overviews of the galleries and the history they tell. It’s a more focused way to reinforce that you’re missing a lot due to weak clock management. More about them here.