National WWI Museum seeks partners to display names of 1918 war casualties

By Jonathan R. Casey
Archives and Edward Jones Research Center, National WWI Museum and Memorial

We invite your organization to take part in a national - and international - commemoration and education project. For the first time the names of the WWI dead from the United States and other combatant nations will be witnessed one by one: American, Canadian, British, French, German, Belgian, Italian, Turkish, Australian, Slovenian, New Zealand, the British Indian Army and the Chinese Labour Corps.

The names of fallen soldiers and other military personnel from the First World War are projected on the side of the Government Conference Centre in Ottawa, Canada.Each name is displayed in the 100th year after death. Each name is programmed to appear on an exact day, hour and minute allowing viewers to find at www.theworldremembers.org the moment that any name will appear.

Our aims are remembrance and education and the WWI Centennial years provide an ideal opportunity for realizing these goals.

By engaging communities across the United States, we hope this broad and inclusive remembrance project will generate an interest in history. It will link Americans to their nation’s history as well as to the history of other nations.

Organizations across the United States are being asked to help us create a nationwide commemoration by displaying the names of the men and women killed in WWI in the Centenary years. The 2017 display presented the names of soldiers killed in 1917. Our 2018 display will show the 920,000 names of those killed in 1918 - including more than 116,000 Americans.

Jonathan R. Casey, Director Archives and Edward Jones Research Center, National WWI Museum and MemorialThe names of those killed in the last 100 days will appear in the 2018 display. Every fifteen minutes throughout the display, the names will fade and will be replaced for twenty-five seconds by a respectful First World War photo, before the names resume again for the next quarter hour.

Your organization can choose to display the names either by day or by night and can choose the number of days (or nights) that it wishes to present the 2018 display.

WHAT YOUR ORGANIZATION WILL RECEIVE

• You will receive a specialized names-display software application, compatible with Macs and PCs that will allow your organization to display the names of the more than 110,000 Americans killed in 1918 as well as the names from other WWI countries.
• You will receive an installation guide and tech support.
• You will receive design layouts for TWR WWI Centennial banners on which you can insert your organization’s information and then print, display or distribute the materials.
• You will be included on The World Remembers website noting all participating organizations.
• The names-display software we provide will run the display by either day or by night for each of the weeks leading up to November 11th

Please note: we anticipate the 2018 names-display will begin on September 17th but the exact date will be determined by June 30th when our 1918/2018 database has been completed. Your organization can choose the number of days or weeks that it presents the display. Please see WHEN THE NAMES APPEAR for details.

HOW THE NAMES WILL APPEAR IN 2018

The centerpiece of the project is a display of the names of those who lost their lives in World War I. The names of US servicemen and women who died in 1918 will be seen at the center of the display screen with the names from other participating nations appearing along the sides of the display. Each name will only appear once in the project and no name will be repeated. The names do not scroll but stand respectfully for a minimum of 22.5 seconds. Individuals will be able to begin to research the history of each name that appears. See THE WORLD REMEMBERS WEBSITE for details.

WHEN THE NAMES WILL APPEAR

The name of each man or woman is displayed in the 100th year after his or her death. In 2018 only the names of those killed in 1918 appear. Each name is programmed to appear at an exact week, day, hour and minute in the names-display. Viewers can utilize our website to find the exact moment when any name will appear. We anticipate the 2018 names-display will run for at least eight consecutive weeks and conclude at sunset November 11th. The launch date is anticipated as September 17th and will be confirmed June 30th this year. Your organization can show the display for the number of days or weeks that best fits with your commemoration activities.

The names-display will run for approximately 11.5 hours each day and will be automatically switched on and off by the TWR names-display software application that you install on your display computer. You can choose to show either the daytime or nighttime version of the display.

Your organization must agree to show the names at the time indicated by The World Remembers team. This will ensure all name-displays in the United States and other nations are a unity and that the “Search The Names’ function on the TWR website provides accurate results for your community.

THE TIMING OF EACH NAME

Each name will be displayed on the same day, hour and minute relative to each time zone. All international names will be seen for 22.5 seconds. It is anticipated that each US name will appear for 22.5 seconds in 2018 and the software will ensure there is always an American name on display.

Each name will appear at the same respective time in displays in participating organizations in the United States, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, Canada and other nations. Therefore, each name will symbolically travel from Europe to east coast communities of the US and then travel time zone by time zone across the continent appearing in each time zone at the same respective time. Every quarter hour all names will fade from the display and will be replaced for twenty-five seconds by a WWI photo with relevant text. After twenty-five seconds, the picture will fade and the names will appear once more. Our intention is that the photos provide a context for the names.

THE WORLD REMEMBERS WEBSITE FUNCTIONS

Our website www.theworldremembers.org will be a general information source for the commemoration. The site will allow anyone to use the ‘Search the Names’ function to find the day, hour and minute that any particular name will appear in the United States or any other participating country. The search function will also show the names that appeared in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 and the time that they appeared in those respective years. The website will provide a link from the ‘Search the Names’ result to archival sites in other nations that will allow participants to explore the history behind each name. The website will show the name and location of each participating museum, library, school, university, community center or other organization.

YOUR ORGANIZATION & THE WORLD REMEMBERS

The 1914-1918 war is distant history for many Americans. To assist in making history relevant, The World Remembers names-display provides the means to personalize the study of history and connect individuals and communities within the United States and around the world. Members of your community will be able to research the soldiers from their local region and explore the history of other participating WWI nations.

You can select the days and weeks that the display is shown and the display can also be included in November 11th Armistice events. Having the names appear, hour after hour, day after day will be a remembrance activity in itself. The length of time needed to witness the names of those killed in WWI will help us appreciate the enormity of the loss and the effect of that loss on both American and world history.

CORE TECHNICAL NEEDS TO PRESENT THE 2018 NAMES-DISPLAY

• 1. You will need a dedicated computer, either PC or Mac on which the names-display software application can be installed. The TWR software, once installed on your computer, will automatically run the display each day.
• 2. You can choose to present either the daytime or nighttime version of the display simply by clicking the option you desire.
• 3. The names-display software will be available through a download from a secure site.
• 4. You will need IT personnel to install the software application with the technical guide that we will provide.
• 5. You can present the names-display on a laptop, a wide screen TV or by projector.
• 6. Projectors will create a more effective names-display but will require a projection surface of either a screen or the surface of a building on which the names and WWI photos can be clearly seen.
• 7. You will need an appropriate location to stage the display of the names.
• . Outdoor displays can have a greater impact but are more complex to produce since they may require both weather cover and security for the technical equipment. Outdoor displays are best presented using the nighttime version of the display.
• 9. Indoor displays are simpler to present. An indoor display area facing a street or public space where the display can be seen through glass doors or glassed walls will be an ideal location that offers weather cover, security and visual access by the public.
• 10. But the imagination, creativity and determination of your team to create a memorable names-display will be the most important contribution you can make.

For questions, please contact-- Jonathan R. Casey, Director Archives and Edward Jones Research Center 816-888-8121, jcasey@theworldwar.org

 The Canadian War Museum presentation of The World Remembers