UPDATED: Nov. 10, 2017 at 1:12 p.m.

Nearly a century has passed since the end of World War I, a war that took the lives of more than 100,000 Americans and changed the world forever. With no living veterans and hardly any footage of the Great War, interest in this significant time in history has declined.

The Onondaga Historical Association’s WWI exhibit, located at 321 Montgomery St., aims to fill the gap. The exhibit will be open through Nov. 11, 2018 — a year from the 100th anniversary of the war’s end — and provide education, artifacts and visual content rooted in Onondaga County.

“We have this really rich collection of World War I we’ve collected from local citizens for many years,” said Thomas Hunter, the exhibit’s curator. “We wanted to bring out what we had in the collection and show it, display it in the community.”

The exhibit concentrates on Onondaga County’s participation in the war at home and on the Western Front to convey the war’s impact on the area.

The exhibit features the Distinguished Service Cross of Homer J. Wheaton, who grew up in Pompey, New York, attended Syracuse University and was the first recipient of the second highest U.S. military award.

Wheaton received the award after he “was killed when another soldier dropped a hand grenade after pulling the pin,” according to OHA’s website. Wheaton “threw himself” to save four of his comrades.

Hunter said residents should understand the importance of learning about the county’s history because it is part of the Onondaga County community.

“If they can associate themselves with a community in which they feel some ownership in the community, we feel they should also embrace their history,” he said.

The exhibit doesn’t only concentrate on Onondaga County’s participation in the war. A section of the exhibit is also dedicated to the events of World War I and its impact on the world. With a war that is less discussed than its successor, World War II, people may not realize the impact that World War I has on the world at large.

“It’s important for people to understand that nothing happens in a vacuum. There is always a cause and an effect,” Hunter said. “… We can educate the community not only on how their local citizens participated in what was called, ‘the Great War,’ but also on the repercussions of the war and the ramifications that it still holds for us today as a nation.”

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this post, the length of the exhibit was misstated. The exhibit will be open until Nov. 11, 2018. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Published on November 8, 2017 at 8:43 pm

Contact Mateo: mtestlin@syr.edu