The time has arrived: Gratiot County Historical Museum’s WWII exhibit opens to the public on Memorial Day! We are excited to share treasures loaned by area residents who experienced that time in history or whose interest has led them to collect artifacts. Other places on this site allow visitors to investigate individual items. Here, we provide provide an overview of the entire display.
Stories are the framework of history and supply the organization of this exhibit. WWII found America battling enemies on many fronts, so coverage identified information depending on the place it involved: European Theater, Pacific Theater, Home Front. A different room in the museum features each place. Within those rooms, artifacts that tell the wartime experiences of a particular serviceperson are grouped together.
Entering the front door, visitors will come upon the sitting room. The main purpose here is to provide a comfortable place to pause, browse photos and manuscripts, and ponder the efforts of this freedom-loving generation. A display of officer’s bars, unit emblems, and other patches can be researched for further identification. One corner shows the service of Wayne Kelly, a drill instructor at Fort Riley, Kansas. His family saved the ration tokens and stamps that remained when the war ended, and those items are on display here as well.
Passing through the double doors of the sitting room leads to the space dedicated to the European Theater. Here one finds the Russian binoculars and Nazi battle flag brought home by Robert Greening. Further in is the collection of Robert Tedhams, D-Day veteran who served in an experimental tank corps. Items show John and Lois Barden’s experience, recently-married just prior to John’s airplane being shot down over Germany. Duane Rench’s personal effects are displayed alongside a painting of the spectacular crash that killed the young waist gunner from Alma. From the museum’s own collection, a massive scrapbook layers article upon article of WWII news and commentary. Yet another display case houses the scrapbook, Nazi pins, and other items from a collection that records the service of Floyd Freed, also a D-day survivor. A manuscript Lee Arthur Chaffin wrote of his experiences in Europe, with a bayonet he brought home are there as well.
Back through the sitting room, a left turn takes the visitor into the room dedicated those who served in the Pacific Theater. One wall and display case trace the contribution of the Flegel family, from which four brothers served in WWII. Their uniforms, a bayonet, Japanese flag and sword, rivet from a Liberty Ship, and even socks tell the story of Romaine, Nyal, and Don Flegel. A nearby exhibit shows Duane Beard’s presence on Tinian on the day the plane Enola Gay carried the first atomic bomb to drop on Japan, and Karen Smith’s father’s photos from the occupation that followed Japan’s surrender. Other displays highlight: Red Ingalls, whose aircraft carrier survived direct hits by two kamikaze planes; Earl Wickman, creativite with bullets and shells; Jack Ginther, who loaned a packaged dinner and mess kit; Richard Lumsden’s hats and training certificates, and Bud Smith’s high school diploma next to a blanket he brought home from the Navy.
Items in the kitchen remind viewers that WWII reached into all areas of everyday life. Arlene (Fortney) Gearhart’s journals, photos, and uniform showing women’s service, a V-mail sent from North Star telling a soldier all the happenings at home, a steel penny issued so copper could be used for wartime manufactures, documentations of strict rationing, the V-for-victory tie, a patriotic birthday card and scrapbook a child compiled to commemorate President Roosevelt’s death: all show how much civilians found their lives touched by the effort to win WWII.
The front room displays daily life and uniforms of the Army Air Corps. As fifth grader Mackenzie puts it, “The historical museum was just the most fascinating thing I have ever seen because of the Air Corps room. You just have to go to the museum because of it. In that room, you will see the most superb air corps artifacts like a parachute, uniforms, typewriter, also what they slept on, and a bunch of other stuff that is really superb!” Thanks to the collection of Joe Vozar, the exhibit is complete down to the card game that some pilots seem to have just left, perhaps to fly out on a mission!
As comprehensive as this description may appear, there are many more items of interest and stories to discover in the Gratiot County Museum’s WWII exhibit. There is no need to be familiar with WWII in order to enjoy the displays. They are set up to make self-guided tours easy and entertaining. Of course, museum volunteers will be on hand and, throughout the summer, veterans and others who are knowledgeable about that era may be on site as well.
Consider this your invitation to join us for the grand opening of the WWII exhibit at the museum, 129 W. Center Street, Ithaca after the 10 A.M. Memorial Day service until 3 P.M. Refreshments will be served! If you can’t attend that event (or if you’d like to return!), regular hours will follow on Wednesdays from 1-4 P.M.