The Beginning

In 1990, Stephen Ambrose proposed to his friend Nick Mueller, both historians at the University of New Orleans, that they create a D-Day museum after discussing the idea at Ambrose's home. Ambrose's research for a book on the Allied landings in German-occupied Normandy on June 6, 1944, had brought together more than 600 oral histories from World War II veterans and donated artifacts that needed a permanent home. He wanted a museum that would honor Americans who gave their lives to liberate Europe from Nazi tyranny and would also tell the story of Andrew Higgins, whose New Orleans factories built the landing craft that enabled Allied troops to reach hostile shores. Mueller agreed to help, and over the years the two pursued the project relentlessly, drawing support from veterans, donors, the United States Congress, and the State of Louisiana. First imagined as a modest university museum on the shore of Lake Pontchartrain, it opened on this site beside Andrew Higgins Drive as The National D-Day Museum on June 6, 2000. From its opening, veterans and congressional leaders urged a broader mission, and after Ambrose died in 2002, Mueller carried that larger vision forward. In 2004, an act of Congress redesignated the institution as The National World War II Museum, charging it with portraying the full American experience in the war and its continuing meaning for global freedom.

New Orleans, Louisiana · United States