American Legion museum launches online exhibit space

The Emil A. Blackmore Museum of The American Legion is excited to announce the launch of a completely online exhibit space. Designed to highlight key facets of the American Legion story, the museum’s online exhibits display materials from the library and museum collections, focusing on the national level of the organization. Museum staff developed the exhibit space using tools from Omeka, an open-source web-publishing initiative designed to display library, museum and archive collections and exhibitions online. Through new exhibits Legionnaires and interested members of the public will gain a fresh appreciation for and understanding of the history of The American Legion.

The museum's first exhibit explores the life and service of Franklin D'Olier, a founder of The American Legion and the first national commander, as well as the great-grandfather of “Superman” actor Christopher Reeve. The exhibit includes newly digitized historic photos, correspondence from the Legion's early years and photographs of rarely seen artifacts. The online exhibit space is a work in progress, and construction of future exhibits is already underway.