Ongoing Exhibits
Fiery Trial and Sacrifice—New York and the First World War
This permanent exhibit focuses on the major units such as the 27th, the 77th and 42nd divisions, and personalities such as Medal of Honor recipient Sgt. Henry Johnson, of Albany, the Rev. Francis P. Duffy, and the poet Joyce Kilmer, a sergeant in the 165th Infantry.
Permanent Exhibit
New York State Military Museum
Saratoga Springs, NY
CNY Living History Center
The WWI display of the Homeville Museum features a life-size, walk-through trench designed to help visitors visualize and understand the realities of combat and its many hardships.
Permanent exhibit
CNY Living History Center
Cortland, NY
Attractions
Brooklyn Navy Yard and Naval Commandant's House (Brooklyn)
The Brooklyn Navy Yard Center at BLDG 92 houses special exhibits and hosts guided tours about the Yard’s past, present and future. Leading up to and during World War One, the Yard was an important naval shipyard and base that employed 18,000 men and women. These workers constructed everything from major battleships to 49 wooden submarine chasers used to protect the coastline from marauding German U-boats. Guided tours of the Yard include a visit to a working dry dock that's been used since before the Civil War, the ornately-decorated 1899 Paymaster building, the former payroll department that is now a whiskey distillery, and Building 128, a massive machine shop that was used to deconstruct captured German submarines for research after the war.
Cradle of Aviation Museum (Garden City)
During World War One, Long Island became the home of some of the largest and most important military flying fields in America. Eight exhibit galleries contain 75 air and spacecraft -- one of most diverse aerospace collections in the world. The museum’s World War I gallery includes a Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny," a Thomas Morse S4C Scout fighter plane, and a Breese Penguin non-flying trainer designed to student pilots the feel of airplane controls at near-flying speeds, without the danger of actual flight.
National Purple Heart Hall of Honor (New Windsor)
Exhibits chronicle the changing nature of warfare and combatants through images, artifacts and personal narratives of individual Purple Heart recipients, including a visual timeline of America’s 20th-21st century conflicts from World War I through today, complimented by an interactive display.
New York State Military Museum (Saratoga Springs)
Located in the historic armory, housing over 10,000 artifacts relating to the state’s military forces, history and veterans, including significant holdings around New York’s 27th Division in World War I and World War II and notable state military regiments such as the 369th (Harlem Hell fighters) New York Infantry.
61 Lake Ave.
Saratoga Springs, NY
(518) 581-5100
New York State Museum (Albany)
222 Madison Avenue, Empire State Plaza,
Albany, NY 12230
Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome
Living museum of antique aviation with one of the largest collections of early aeroplanes in the world, as well as automobiles, motorcycles, early engines and memorabilia spanning the period from 1900-1939. Weekend air shows features Saturdays with pioneer, World War I and Lindbergh era aircraft, and Sundays with a World War I dogfight and barnstorming aircraft.
Staatsburgh State Historic Site
At this fine example of the great estates built by America's financial and industrial leaders, “World War I and the End of the Gilded Age” is a special tour led by a costumed interpreter chronicling how the Mills family’s extravagant way of life withered away in the cataclysm of the Great War.
United State Military Academy at West Point
Includes the West Point Museum, the oldest, largest public collection of military artifacts in the western hemisphere, shown in exhibits like American Wars, History of the U.S. Army and History of Warfare and Word War I items like a tank and staff car, communications equipment, and the artillery piece that fired the first U.S. shot in the war.
CNY Living History Center (Cortland)
The WWI display of the Homeville Museum, of the CNY Living History Center complex, features a life-size, walk-through trench designed to help visitors visualize and understand the realities of combat and its many hardships; the trench is outfitted with life-like mannequins, barbed wire, and sandbags, as well as recreated artillery flashes with sounds. Visitors will also be able to engage with audio recordings of letters sent home by soldiers who endured living in the trenches. The exhibit is rounded out by an extensive collection of artifacts, memorabilia, uniforms, helmets, and weaponry.
Lake View Cemetery (Jamestown)
Historic cemetery that includes Soldier’s Circle, an area that is the resting place of nearly 1,000 veterans and contains a World War One memorial at its center. Guided and self-guided tours of the cemetery are available.
Polish American Museum (Port Washington)
Collection includes a Polish Legion World War I Blue Army Uniform and 1920 War display.
Schenectady County Historical Society
“Together Until the End: Schenectady in World War I” is an exhibition commemorating the Great War’s effect on Schenectady and its people, and will be accompanied by programs and films throughout the year.
Rensselaer County Historical Society
57 Second Street
Troy, NY 12180
Phone: 518-272-7232
Veterans Cemeteries in New York
Albany Rural Cemetery Soldiers' Lot
Cemetery Avenue
Albany, NY 12204
Bath National Cemetery
San Juan Avenue
Bath, NY 14810
Calverton National Cemetery
210 Princeton Boulevard
Calverton, NY 11933
Cypress Hills National Cemetery
625 Jamaica Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11208
Gerald B. H. Solomon Saratoga National Cemetery
200 Duell Road
Schuylerville, NY 12871
Long Island National Cemetery
2040 Wellwood Avenue
Farmingdale, NY 11735
Orange County Veterans Memorial Cemetery
111 Craigville Road
Goshen, NY 10924
Sampson Veterans Memorial Cemetery
6632 NY-96A
Romulus, NY 14541
Woodlawn National Cemetery
1825 Davis Street
Elmira, NY 14901