Largest WWI Mobile Museum travels across America but calls Marlow, Oklahoma home.  Pictured: museum curator Keith Arden Colley.

Largest WWI Mobile Museum travels across America but calls Marlow, OK home 

By Will Hutchison
via the KSWO ABC 7 television station (OK) web site

The WWI Mobile Museum is full of artifacts, pictures and displays.

“We’ve created a platform for our seniors and our veterans to come together and talk about their stories and their history and their background, especially our World War Two vets, as we all know we’re losing them every day. We’ve got Korea, we’ve got all the wars and unfortunately, we’ve got no one left from World War I. It gets the conversation started,” said museum curator Keith Arden Colley.

The entire museum sits inside one car and a trailer. Colley calls Marlow home but spends most of his time taking the museum anywhere and everywhere.

“We offer it to anybody. We’ve been to air shows, we’ve been to schools, love to go to schools. Basically, if someone wants us, we’ll make it happen,” Colley said.

Colley started this project several years ago after a conversation about World War One while working with people with Alzheimer’s.

“If you can awaken all five senses at one time, you’re going to get a better reaction from someone with Alzheimer’s or dementia, so I thought you know what, he can talk to me about it but he needs to see and touch,” Colley said.

Colley then purchased his first WWI artifact - a shovel from Bulgaria.

“When I placed it into his hands he actually started crying because his dad brought his shovel home from WWI and it brought up all the stories, it was just a flood. I thought you know what, I need more artifacts,” Colley said.

Since then, Colley has purchased countless artifacts, taking them across the country to keep the history of WWI alive. Unfortunately, the pandemic put a hold on that, as he’s had to cancel 238 scheduled showings. But he’s spent that time making the museum better.

Read the entire article on the KSWO web site here:

External Web Site Notice: This page contains information directly presented from an external source. The terms and conditions of this page may not be the same as those of this website. Click here to read the full disclaimer notice for external web sites. Thank you.