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Stories of veteran service and sacrifice straight from the people driving today’s most important veterans causes and veterans organizations around the world. The show shines a spotlight on their inspiring projects making a real difference for veterans and their families, and along the way we'll hear the stories that drive them to do their best every day as they work to support veterans and their memory.
00:00:05:09 - 00:00:26:15
Unknown
Hey, it's Matthew Cudmore and welcome to Story Behind the Stone. What happens when faith meets the front lines? Join us as we sit down with Patricia Cecil, specialist curator of Faith, religion and World War One at the National World War One Museum and Memorial in Kansas City as America's National World War One museum and a site that draws over 1.1 million visitors every year.
00:00:26:17 - 00:00:32:00
Unknown
It's home to the iconic Liberty Memorial and one of the world's largest collections of Great War artifacts.
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Unknown
Patricia takes us behind the scenes of Sacred Service, an extraordinary exhibit revealing how chaplains became the unlikely helpers, healers and mental health champions of their day. From 3D scans of central artifacts to untold stories of sacrifice. This conversation will change how we think about faith, war, and remembrance.
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Unknown
Thanks for tuning in.
00:00:58:05 - 00:01:17:01
Unknown
Welcome to Story Behind the Stone, where we talk service, sacrifice and stories connecting you to the past and the most interesting people in the field of veteran causes and commemoration. My name is Ryan Mullins along with Matthew Cudmore. We are with Memory Anchor, a company committed to using technology for good as we work at changing the way the world remembers.
00:01:17:04 - 00:01:26:19
Unknown
So today we're joined by Patricia, and she is a specialist curator of faith and religion and World War One with the National World War One Museum and Memorial
00:01:26:19 - 00:01:28:19
Unknown
Thank you so much for for joining us,
00:01:28:19 - 00:01:29:07
Unknown
Patricia.
00:01:29:07 - 00:01:33:04
Unknown
Thanks so much for having me. Ryan and Matthew, it's a pleasure to be here. You have quite a title.
00:01:33:04 - 00:01:51:02
Unknown
And did I did I get that right? You did. Yes. Yeah. So I'm the specialist curator for faith, religion and World War one here at the National World War one Museum and Memorial Moore in Kansas City, Missouri. What does that title mean? What does your day look like as a curator? I work in the field of public history, but then also with material culture.
00:01:51:02 - 00:02:16:16
Unknown
So the physical things that people have created and left behind and with the title of for Faith and Religion and World War One, I look at the intersection of, of religion and conflict or faith and conflict. So I look at that at the macro level and the micro level. So the macro level, how do nations and institutional religions, understand deal with and dialog with war?
00:02:16:16 - 00:02:45:15
Unknown
So, for example, how do nations, how might they use religion for propaganda purposes? Or how might large institutional religions change due to conflict? I also look at faith on the micro level. So individual, personal, spiritual and religious experiences. So there I look at how people change and how people's view of faith and understanding of faith changes and impact war, and then also how war and conflict influences and changes people's faith.
00:02:45:15 - 00:03:05:18
Unknown
Right? So you can go to war and have your faith strengthened. You can have it lost, you can have it tested. You can have it not changed at all. Right. So that is all encompassed that my work encompasses all of those things. So from really large overhead view down to like the small individual personal experience, did you think that this is what you'd be doing when you grew up?
00:03:05:21 - 00:03:28:11
Unknown
How did you end up in this, in this position? It's so fascinating. It's a really unique position. So it's not something that I, specifically envisioned myself doing when I was younger. But I always knew that I wanted to work, with history in the field of history. And I especially loved museums and cultural institutions. So when I was a child, I was really lucky.
00:03:28:11 - 00:03:51:09
Unknown
I got to travel around with my family a lot. And, my parents are really big history buffs. So our travel always incorporated some sort of aspect of history. So whether it was going to a presidential library or a Colonial Williamsburg or an old cathedral, like we're always touching some sort of aspect of history, and that just instilled in me a really huge passion for history.
00:03:51:11 - 00:04:14:21
Unknown
And I really especially loved going to the places where history happened and the places where they recorded and shared history with everyone, right? Like that educational aspect of it, and especially when it was tied with the actual stuff, that was just a huge excitement, for me. So I knew that I wanted to work in museums in some way or cultural institutions.
00:04:14:23 - 00:04:36:11
Unknown
And then as I got older, learning about history, I learned that there was a lot, in history that we don't really talk about, or especially we didn't really talk about when I was growing up. So sort of like lesser known, stories in history. So not just sort of the national narrative that a lot of us grew up with, but sort of that other side of history, those really personal stories that that don't get shared a lot.
00:04:36:13 - 00:05:00:11
Unknown
So actually became really passionate about Native American history and the relationships that Native American communities have with museums. And that's what I focused on for a long time, was, those those telling the stories and helping Native American communities tell their own stories in museum spaces. And that has so a lot of Native American communities and their cultural matters, they're deeply tied to spirituality.
00:05:00:17 - 00:05:21:22
Unknown
So that's how I kind of got the religion aspect, brought into my work. So I ended up working at the University of Kansas in the Department of Religious Studies as an archivist. For a while, I ran a, an archive where we collected and documented, stories of religious diversity and experience in Kansas. And that really became a passion of mine.
00:05:21:23 - 00:05:47:20
Unknown
So then when, they announced that this position, was available at the National World War One Museum memorial, I was like, oh, that's everything. Like, that's everything I want to do. It's public history, it's material culture, it's spirituality and religion. And it's also right. One of the great things about our mission here is enduring impact. So it's not just the time period itself, but how that time period we still feel the reverberations of people's decisions.
00:05:47:22 - 00:06:07:20
Unknown
100 years ago today, that was just sort of the perfect, the perfect storm for me. This position. So that's how I got here. Do you want to just tell me a little bit about, your location and the significance of it? So the National World War II museum, a memorial, we're really fortunate to occupy a gorgeous monument.
00:06:07:22 - 00:06:30:07
Unknown
So it's known as the Liberty Memorial is the name of the tower itself. And it's a 217ft tower that has, four guardian spirits around the top. Their courage, honor, patriotism and sacrifice. Those are the names of the four guardian spirits. So they're on this tall cylindrical shaft. And at night, there's a lot of people think it was once a flame.
00:06:30:07 - 00:06:46:17
Unknown
It was never actually a flame. It's just. It's a steam effect and lighting. Sometimes we get people who not so much anymore, but they're like, oh, when I was a child, I remembered when it was actually a flame at the top of the tower. It was never actually it was it was always deep. This is really gorgeous effect, though, right?
00:06:46:17 - 00:07:19:00
Unknown
At nighttime of this illuminated steam, it's supposed to look like a tower, a flame of inspiration is what what it's called at the top, an H. Van Buren McGonagall. Who is the architect, that that designed the memorial. He said the his inspiration for the tower was, in Exodus, the biblical story of Exodus, when Moses is leading the Jews out of Egypt, it is God appears as a, a pillar of cloud by day and a flame by night.
00:07:19:00 - 00:07:45:16
Unknown
And that's what this pillar is supposed to represent. And then on either side there are two halls. So this is the original memorial that was dedicated in 1926, or two halls of memory hall. And there's exhibit hall. Exhibit hall was always sort of like the museum space where they because we've been collecting since 1921, since they started the institution, exhibit hall, the sort of the space where they, wanted to display, items from the war.
00:07:45:16 - 00:08:06:06
Unknown
Help, remember, people sacrifice of the war, and then memory hall as a hall, that we have, that these bronze tablets with 441 names of the war dead of Kansas City memorialized. We also have a section of the Pantheon de la Guerre, which was this huge panoramic painting that was painted in France at the end of the war.
00:08:06:08 - 00:08:25:03
Unknown
It was a major attraction at the time. So these painters, it was you would walk into it in the round and it was all the countries that took part in the war and sort of their major figures represented on this painting. So you could step inside. And it was the route that has its own story. It could be a whole a whole other podcast just for the pantheon.
00:08:25:04 - 00:08:46:05
Unknown
But basically we ended up getting it in the 1950s. It had been like dismantled and kind of taken apart over time. But Daniel McMorris, an artist in Kansas City, tracked it down. He repaired it, judged it up a little with his own 1950s Americana spin. And then so that's up, as a mural inside memory hall.
00:08:46:05 - 00:09:10:11
Unknown
And there are a couple other murals by Mike Morris in that space, too. So that's the original was 1926 Memorial, the tower and the two buildings. And then in 2006, they expanded and renovated the museum, which is, the space that we occupied now because we have over 350 to 350,000 objects that we've been collecting over the past 100 years.
00:09:10:14 - 00:09:38:11
Unknown
So there's a lot there. Yeah. And but you said you're 70, 73ft underground, so it probably keeps you cool in the summer, which is great. The museum itself, they dug down underneath the memorial, built it out. Ralph Applebaum and Associates designed it in 2006. And we have this beautiful glass. Walkway that has a 9000 poppies underneath it, each poppy representing a thousand, deaths in World War one.
00:09:38:13 - 00:10:03:21
Unknown
And we have our gorgeous main gallery section. And then we have a temporary gallery space, Wylie Gallery, where we rotate, exhibits on a two year basis. And then we still do exhibits up an exhibit hall, and then, memory hall is actually going to be its own unique exhibit space coming in 2026. So you have all of these exhibits, and I hate asking this question because it's never fair, but I'm going to ask it anyways.
00:10:03:23 - 00:10:25:15
Unknown
Is is there something in particular in your your museum or in your space that's one of your favorite favorite things to visit? Well, my favorite thing right now I would say is we have an exhibit going on called Sacred Service. And it's all about chaplains and the chaplain experience in World War One. And it's actually such a unique exhibit because it's the only place I know of, in the world right now.
00:10:25:15 - 00:11:02:17
Unknown
Or really, that's ever been where you can see, the chaplain experience represented from all belligerent nations in the conflict. So we look at a diversity of faiths represented by chaplains. So Christian, Jewish or Orthodox, Christian, Roman Catholic, Muslim, we even talk about, the Buddhist, fighters that were coming in fighting from the colonies from like, Great Britain, North African soldiers, fighting for France, though we talk about all of the faiths that World War One touched and their faith experiences, and especially those of chaplains.
00:11:02:17 - 00:11:28:16
Unknown
Right. These religious leaders who were put in these positions that, frankly, a lot of them were completely unprepared for. Right? Like they were most chaplains were noncombatant, you know, they were coming from, a background where, you know, they had been to college and they had ministered to people, but they had never been in a situation where they're having bullets being shot at them, or having to counsel men who are in in severe distress.
00:11:28:16 - 00:11:55:12
Unknown
Right. So, so they're pretty unprepared for it. And really, what happens, what we find in World War One is this huge transformation of, of chaplains, their own spirituality. And then their experiences that then reverberate through the 20th century based on what they witnessed and those who lived through World War One. What then they brought back to their to their faith community is building a response of faith, for people more, much less dogmatic faith.
00:11:55:12 - 00:12:10:05
Unknown
We think about like faith in the 19th century, the 1800s. It's pretty dogmatic. It's like you follow the rules. You either do a good job and you go to heaven, or you don't do a good job and you go to hell, you know? And if you're not showing up to church on Sunday, then you're just doing a terrible job.
00:12:10:10 - 00:12:27:10
Unknown
This all really changed with World War One, because we get a lot of these leaders and these chaplains being in this situation, saying like, this isn't really helping anyone, right? And how like what we need to do is build the, faith systems that are responsive to people, that meet people where they are that say, how can I help you in this situation?
00:12:27:10 - 00:12:51:01
Unknown
Right. So we we, we get the a more 20th century understanding of faith that we start to see born out into the 20th century. So tolerance, ecumenical, the, working together be across faiths and between faiths and that's and that really all comes out of, of World War one and people's faith experiences. Right in these harrowing conditions.
00:12:51:03 - 00:13:17:22
Unknown
You know, I yeah, I've read a lot of books and the chaplains, you know, especially in World War two where the, you know, the doing Extreme Unction, they're they're doing first aid, they're supporting even, you know, civilian populations. But they have to be a little bit of everything, don't they? You know, we've come a long way. When we looked at, you know, what was used to be called, you know, shellshock in the First World War and to, you know, battle fatigue in the second.
00:13:17:22 - 00:13:51:03
Unknown
And now we know kind of post-traumatic stress or post traumatic stress injury. But, you know, the psychological support of soldiers, you know, I would imagine it would have rested almost solely on these, these individuals. Absolutely. And that's something that we share in sacred service. Like we're all pretty familiar, most of us, if we kind of have a history or a military or even religious background, we kind of we understand chaplains or have a general notion of sort of the worship services or sacramental celebrations that that chaplains were there to provide.
00:13:51:03 - 00:14:19:07
Unknown
But really, what came out of this and all of the research, that came out of preparing for sacred service was that chaplains were the mental health professionals of their day and World War one. Right. Like this was a time before really any basic mental health services, especially in a military setting. And chaplains were the boots on the ground, who were sort of the first in line to help soldiers deal with post-traumatic stress disorder, to deal with the shellshock, as they called it.
00:14:19:07 - 00:14:45:19
Unknown
Back then, they were the ones who were writing letters back home to sold to soldiers families. They were the ones who were counseling men. If they were, for example, Father Duffy, he's a really famous American chaplain from World War one. He was the chaplain for the, fighting 69th Regiment. And, we actually have his, confessional tool on loan to us from World War one from the US Chaplain Corps Museum in sacred service.
00:14:45:19 - 00:15:09:13
Unknown
Right. And it is just this really powerful piece, because you think of those moments when he would have been, providing the sacrament of reconciliation to a soldier or counseling them, providing absolution. And for this person that was probably going through this absolute horrific moment and thinking about the the courage, the spiritual, comfort that this would have brought.
00:15:09:13 - 00:15:33:17
Unknown
It's it's really powerful. And we have writings where we have soldiers in the 69th who who weren't even Catholic and, but they would go to see Father Duffy, for confession before battle because they just felt such a, an overwhelming, calm and comfort from him. So we see we see this all the time. And in the chaplains of World War One, you know, they were not only the stretcher bearers.
00:15:33:19 - 00:15:50:20
Unknown
They were they were also the the first aid, givers. Right. A lot of them were had basic medical training. So they were the ones rushing into no man's land and pulling people back then they were also the people listening, you know, to the soldiers and their bunkers later on because they had no one else to talk to.
00:15:50:20 - 00:16:23:04
Unknown
So they really were, the, the counselors, the friends that, that were there for service members during World War one. I'm kind of drawn, actually, on my own personal experience. I remember when I was serving, I was on deployment, domestic operation, and I had a tragic loss of a family member, and it was shocked me. And as you you're talking about this, you know, I had a, of course, my friends who came to support me, but they brought me to the chaplain, and I can't remember his name.
00:16:23:04 - 00:16:55:17
Unknown
I'm getting a little emotional, but he sat with me in that moment where I had this tragedy. And I wouldn't have that religious background or anything, but what he offered me was so important, so needed. I just had a space to sit, and he listened. And, you know, that's the loss of a family member. And you think, what these individuals are doing in the First World War, that creates a lot of empathy and, and just what the that service was to those individuals.
00:16:55:17 - 00:17:23:00
Unknown
And, you know, the burden that must have taken on them, the vicarious trauma, you know, and what they held. And so, it's, it's I think that that importance and your exhibit again, another thing that's just drawn me, to that what is what is the big takeaway you want people to, to really, you know, when they're coming in and seeing the exhibit you put together, like, what?
00:17:23:00 - 00:17:39:17
Unknown
What is the thing that you want people to be taken away? I think my main takeaway, you know, there was there's a really great sort of criminal paraphrase that, you know, Mister Rogers, he is Fred Rogers. He had the saying, you know, when there are tragedies, when there are bad events, you know, what do you do? You look for the helpers.
00:17:39:19 - 00:18:01:19
Unknown
And that's really what this exhibit was for me, right? Like it was my love letter to the helpers of World War One. Like, these were men. Most of them. Unless you were French. The French. French priests did carry guns. And because of secular laws, had to, engage in combat. But for most other nations, every other nation chaplains were noncombatants.
00:18:01:21 - 00:18:26:17
Unknown
They were not armed. They were not there to hurt anyone, to kill anyone, to fight. They were there solely to provide comfort and to provide courage, to provide a listening ear to people who were going through things that I think for us in 2025, for the majority of us, thankfully, are absolutely unimaginable things that we can't even fathom witnessing.
00:18:26:17 - 00:18:49:11
Unknown
You know, you read accounts of World War One, and I won't go into them because you can read them everywhere, you know? And then, I mean, really horrifying thing is this was mass industrialized warfare on a scale that no one had ever seen before or no one could even comprehend. When they went into this in the summer of 1914, what that would look like, the technology changed and scaled so rapidly.
00:18:49:17 - 00:19:14:02
Unknown
The destruction was from humans to horses to landscape would just annihilated things. And so you're having people witnessing these things that have no vocabulary, no framework for understanding of them. And who's there? Who are the helpers in World War One? It was the chaplains. They were the first person that you would run into or meet if you were in distress.
00:19:14:02 - 00:19:41:02
Unknown
And so that's really what this exhibit is and what I hope people take away from it is even in the most extreme, horrific situations, there are reserves within us where we can show up and be those people, be those helpers for other people. In those moments of me, it's a lesson you know, we can take into our modern day is, you know, looking at that dedication and the integrity and the values that these individuals lived by.
00:19:41:04 - 00:20:03:19
Unknown
And, you know, we could be called to some pretty extreme events to show that that courage. I love that Fred Rogers quote. I think that's very fitting. Several months ago, you also off, launched a digital initiative with Sacred Service. Could you tell us a little bit about how that came together, the challenges and kind of the unique approach to delivering the digital aspect, so that that was really inspiring work that you did.
00:20:03:21 - 00:20:25:14
Unknown
Oh thank you. Yeah. So there is there's a digital exhibition version of Sacred Service. And so it has about 10 to 15 objects that are from the exhibition. But they unlike the exhibition, they are accessible anywhere in the world to anyone who has an internet connection and a computer or a smartphone. Right. So you can see them anywhere you are.
00:20:25:14 - 00:20:49:05
Unknown
You don't have to pay an admission price, you don't have to come to Kansas City. And you can see these beautiful objects. One of the one of the best things I think about the digital exhibition is we have harness. It's new technology. So it's 3D scanning technology. So we can actually get a complete scan of an object, top or bottom, front, back, all around, inside out.
00:20:49:07 - 00:21:09:08
Unknown
And so we've utilized this technology in the digital exhibition. So wherever you are in the world you can get as close actually probably closer a cluster in detail view of the object than you would even in person. Right. Because when you're in person you have the glass there you can get this technology allows you to zoom in on an object, to zoom out an object, see it in incredible detail.
00:21:09:08 - 00:21:30:03
Unknown
And then of course, we have the wonderful it's supporting historical interpretation for each of those scans and objects that really sort of illuminate what makes that object special, and then ties it into the overall story of the Chaplin experience and World War One. Can you spotlight one of those images? For us, we're going to include links in the show, notes about these objects and the exhibition.
00:21:30:05 - 00:21:51:08
Unknown
But is there is there one that you'd wanted to spotlight just just now? Absolutely. So there's a Chaplin, a Chaplin’s Kit And so for those who aren't familiar with Chaplin's or their work at Chaplin's kit, especially in World War One, it has everything you need, to to worship or perform a sacrament. Especially. I'm talking here, really, about Christian Chaplin.
00:21:51:10 - 00:22:12:06
Unknown
So it looks like, if you would imagine, like a briefcase, just a leather briefcase, but then you open it up and it's lined with velvet. And inside there are all these perfect little compartments where all these special objects Nestle. So, for example, the communion, one of the communion kits that we have on display in sacred service is a British Anglican Communion.
00:22:12:12 - 00:22:36:20
Unknown
Okay. So, it's Protestant British, Anglican. So Church of England. And so inside here, he had everything that he would need to perform communion out in the field. And it's like a briefcase. So he could take it with him wherever. So whether he was in a trench, if he was on the battlefield, if he was on a ship going somewhere, if he was traveling, he had everything he would need right with him.
00:22:37:02 - 00:22:57:06
Unknown
And it's all those, you know, really beautiful sacramental objects. You know, when you think about, like, a high Christian church service and everything is shiny and sparkly, you know, I'm pretty. Everything's gold or glass. It looks it looks very special. You know, all these objects are inside this just sort of old leather fired up case. And it's really beautiful, right?
00:22:57:06 - 00:23:17:06
Unknown
Because it just it illustrates so well what chaplains had to do. They had to be everywhere all the time and ready to help someone at a moment's notice from, you know, on from the littlest thing, from giving someone a cigaret, which many of them did. There's one of my favorite chaplains. He was nicknamed Would by Willie GA Kennedy.
00:23:17:06 - 00:23:35:03
Unknown
He was a, British chaplain, and he was known, he spent like, over I mean, he spent thousands of dollars of his own money just on cigarets to hand out to soldiers, and that they were would buy in cigarets. That's how he got the nickname would Biden Willie, because 98% of men in World War One smoked. So.
00:23:35:03 - 00:23:56:05
Unknown
Right. So it was these small things from a cigaret, a little bit of comfort, a cigaret in the trench to opening up your communion set and performing, you know, celebrating communion for people. It's so I think it illustrates in such a beautiful way, just sort of the jack of all trades nature, that chaplains had to embody in World War One.
00:23:56:05 - 00:24:22:13
Unknown
And they're just it's beautiful, beautiful things as as you're talking. I'm just going through your catalog of 3D images and looking at them and spinning them around. You know, we we absolutely love, the 3D scans. That's something we, we use, as well. And the reason being is it lets people engage and interact with these, these objects that, you know, you wouldn't be able to touch, even the even the, field communion set here.
00:24:22:13 - 00:24:40:13
Unknown
You can see, you can see the age with the handle falling off as something you don't want to handle, but, you know, getting a sense of the object and looking at it and the pictures as I go along with it are, are wonderful. And so, you know, we'll include that in the show notes, because I think it's important for people to really see this.
00:24:40:13 - 00:25:09:20
Unknown
And it's great seeing your museum using this kind of emerging technology in in new ways, because this is, it's a different way to engage people in the stories. Right? Even taking a look at the, the the chaplain's tunic, the uniform, you know, this is this allows those people to look at it and, and use in particular to maybe engage with, with something that is in a bit of a different medium.
00:25:09:22 - 00:25:32:22
Unknown
How did how did this idea come to you, the use of technology in this commemoration? We've always been I risk takers, I think here at the museum a memorial that something that I was, you know, lucky to come into, when I started in 2021, we have leadership that is really supportive of us taking risks and trying new things.
00:25:33:00 - 00:25:58:03
Unknown
And digital technology is one of those things. And we've embraced it. And like you said, it's such a great way to share these stories with people that may not engage with them otherwise. And it's just it's it's just a part of the world that we live in today. Right? It's 2025. Digital technologies are such a part of our lives in so many places.
00:25:58:03 - 00:26:16:18
Unknown
It just to me, it's a natural fit to then embrace those and use those to tell these stories, because they can really take them to a level that we we've never really been able to get to before in the realm of public history. Right. And there and we have people who engage with this material on these platforms in other ways.
00:26:16:18 - 00:26:40:23
Unknown
Right. Like, we think people who play, you know, first person video games or think there's so many that have, historical, narratives and so it's a natural fit, I think, for us to embrace that in a museum space. It's it's a great, exciting way to tell those stories. And I think it's it's a really liberating to do it in a lot of ways it's too.
00:26:40:23 - 00:27:06:09
Unknown
Right. Like by not just being limited to the physical walls of a museum space, by using these digital technologies, we can reach people almost anywhere. And that's incredible. That's phenomenal. For our mission, there's a way to expand your your message, your offer well beyond, you know, the walls of the museum. And when you have artifacts like this that, you know, you go into some museums.
00:27:06:09 - 00:27:30:00
Unknown
I used to work at the military museums and in Calgary. The amount of artifacts that are just amazing, that aren't on display, that people don't get to see because, you know, as, as curators, you have to choose what you're showing. And yeah, otherwise you overwhelm people or, or it could look like a flea market. Right. If it's you have to be able to tell a story.
00:27:30:00 - 00:28:06:22
Unknown
Right. And. Yeah. Yeah, technology enables that storytelling in a different way, doesn't it? Really? Yeah, yeah. We have, you know, like you said, I mean, about 80% of our collection is behind closed doors. So at any given time, it's only about 20% of our collection that the public is seeing, at any given time. So we have all these wonderful things with all these different stories that a lot of times we just can't display because they're either, you know, we don't have a specific exhibition for it or it's just not a it's not a good fit for something in our main gallery.
00:28:06:23 - 00:28:32:04
Unknown
But but they are wonderful objects that have, frankly, most of the time really exciting stories behind them, especially here, you know, so to be able to share those, share more of them with more people, I mean, that's I think that's a win win for everyone. I wanted to go back. You mentioned, you know, there's 441 war dead from Kansas City.
00:28:32:06 - 00:28:52:12
Unknown
Is there a story in that, in that list that has that you gravitate to, or that has resonated with your or hits you deep in the heart? One of the ones that stands out to me the most is, Lottie Hollenbeck. And she is the only the one and only female on our list of 441 out of Kansas City.
00:28:52:12 - 00:29:18:03
Unknown
And she was a nurse. I think her story is really interesting. One, because she's the only female represented, but two, she tells us such a really great story about nursing in World War One, you know, and she was a young woman. She was a local graduate of the college, of the nursing college here in Kansas City. And I think she was assigned to Base Hospital 28 and ended up going out to Fort Riley, Kansas.
00:29:18:03 - 00:29:46:02
Unknown
And it's 1918 when this is happening. So the influenza outbreak is upon everyone, and she ends up dying of influenza at Fort Riley. And it's she died within like 42 hours. She got sick, and 42 hours later she was dead, which happened so much that something we discovered with the 441 database. So the the number one cause of death was wounds received in action, or died in action.
00:29:46:02 - 00:30:14:01
Unknown
Number two was disease. And by and large, it was mostly pneumonia due to complications from influenza. And you can just really see, really starkly when you look at that data, just how devastating the influenza pandemic in 1918 was. And just how many lives it decimated. So she's I think she's a great story. There are also the Carson brothers, which I think is a really poignant story.
00:30:14:01 - 00:30:40:09
Unknown
Renick and Robert Carson, they were two years apart in birth, but they died within four days of each other. One was in the army and one was in the Marines. They were in completely two separate places. But in the fall of 1918, both died within four days. And I just think about their parents and just how absolutely how just how devastating that would be to know that, to experience that.
00:30:40:09 - 00:31:01:07
Unknown
But, you know, those are just a handful. There are so many on that list that have really beautiful, unique stories. We had so many, actually, that we discovered there were young men who went into Canadian service. They joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force, and either because they were, they were originally from Canada and they were down in Kansas City working on the railroad.
00:31:01:13 - 00:31:25:02
Unknown
So then they went back and enlisted in the, Canadian Forces and went over or like, for example, we had this one young man, who was in school. He was a Baker University. And in 1916, he went up with friends to work on the wheat harvest in Calgary, I think up at the wheat harvest. And he just and he joined up over there in the summer.
00:31:25:02 - 00:31:45:09
Unknown
He just didn't come back home and he was like, no. And he joined the CIA and he was killed, in Passchendaele. So, you know, just these really that's the thing about the databases. We have all these statistics and we can say, you know, most of them died because of this or during this time. But when you drill it down, the stories are so unique.
00:31:45:10 - 00:32:19:10
Unknown
And each person had their story and and that's it just becomes so powerful when you encounter them that way. You know, of course, Calgary being our hometown and hearing that. And I just actually finish mapping out Timecard, which is, the Passchendaele cemetery. So I'm sure he's buried there. And, I would have marked his grave and, you know, that's that little connection and it and it really it shows the connection between our two countries, you know, both in the first and Second World War, we had a lot of Americans called the service.
00:32:19:12 - 00:32:37:15
Unknown
And since we were in the war quite early, you know, especially Second World War, tons of pilots, coming up from the states and then vice versa, and to Vietnam. As as we wrap up here, Patricia is there, you know, how do people connect and engage with with your content? And, you know, what's next, for you?
00:32:37:15 - 00:33:04:01
Unknown
What what's on the horizon? We have a a wealth of digital exhibitions that we've done over the past few years that people, can, can see and visit on our website, the world morgue. Of course, people are welcome to come and visit us. We're in Kansas City, Missouri. 2026 is our centennial celebration. So next year we are going to be celebrating 100 years of, remembering and interpreting the Great War.
00:33:04:01 - 00:33:24:00
Unknown
So we're celebrating our big hundredth anniversary. America is celebrating her 20 50th. So we've got a lot of great history events coming up in 2026. And then also we get to be we're the Fan Fest host site for the FIFA World Cup in 2026. So we're going to have an exhibition on soccer and World War one coming.
00:33:24:00 - 00:33:41:05
Unknown
And with lots of fun, exciting, great things going on on our grounds. So really, really exciting things in the year ahead. Well, it sounds like a lot of stuff worthwhile checking out. So to our listeners, please, please check the show notes to look for some of those links. Take time. Go on Google, look up the museum, have a look at everything.
00:33:41:05 - 00:33:51:14
Unknown
They're doing a lot of stuff coming in 2026. Patricia, thank you so much for joining us today. Really appreciate your time. Thank you Ryan. Thank you Matthew. This has been a blast.
00:33:57:05 - 00:34:16:15
Speaker 1
Thanks so much for tuning in. Story. Behind the Stone is available on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, and on the Rise Across America Radio Network on iHeartRadio. Audacity and tune in to search for wreath. We air every Thursday at 10 a.m. eastern on the Red Cross Radio Network. Thank you for tuning in.