The Memorial Hunters Club
Dust of your safari outfit - and get ready to hunt for treasure!
Nearly one hundred years ago, after WWI, thousands of memorials were erected in the honor of those who served and those who gave their lives in this epic global struggle. The Memorials were put up by towns, cities, veterans organizations, schools, churches, civic organizations and clubs.
Today, there is no national register of these important and many times forgotten American cultural and historical treasures so...
WE NEED YOUR HELP!
Join the Memorial hunters Club and help us hunt down and catalog this fading national treasure. We already have had huge help from the state Centennial teams, especially those in Alabama, Georgia and New Jersey who have cataloged hundreds of WWI memorials for their states. Get your anthropology on... It's time to go treasure hunting.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Start by checking with your local veterans organizations like your local American Legion post, Veterans of Foreign wars post, Daughter of the American Revolution chapter. These organizations were responsible for putting up many of the memorials and may have records or the memorials may even be right at the post facilities.
Try your local city hall. The Parks & Recreations department may know of hidden treasures they have been managing for decades.
Are there churches in your town built turn of the century? Check in with them. There may be an old plaque, stone or memorial on their grounds.
Schools were another popular location for memorials. Is there a plaque on that old flag pole? What does it say?
Research old local newspaper archives . Many of them are available online using www.ProQuest.com. This was suggested by one of our participants.
OLD SCHOOL MEETS NEW SCHOOL
Like a Pokemon hunt, You need to get off the couch and go find stuff... AND like with PG your smart phone is your main tool.
If you find a memorial - whip out that phone to check our Memorial Map to see if you found a missing piece!
Not on the map? Hooza - bag your find, take some snaps of that memorial and get ready to submit it!
DON'T FORGET THAT SELFIE
Although we need clean pix of the place and the memorial itself, a wide shot, a closeup of the plaque, etc... we also invite you to include a selfie with the memorial and your explorer crew. Because if your find is a lost memorial, YOUR NAME (or nickname or team name) will go on the map location as the explorers that found it.. and we'll include your selfie in the gallery.
A FEW MORE THINGS
Like any great cultural anthropologist, you found the treasure, now you need to uncover the story:
- The memorials name
- The exact address (or Google map link)
- Any information you can come up with ABOUT the memorial, when it was built, who built it and what happened in your town during that era?
Try those same organizations we listed above.
FINISH UP ON THE SUCCESS PAGE
Go to the Memorial Hunters club SUCCESS PAGE and upload your treasure to be permanently archived on the National World War One Centennial web site Memorial Map. Your contribution will become part of the National Archive of the WWI Centennial and will be available as valued information for generations to come.
We will include your choice of real name, nickname or team name as the explorer who found that memorial.
NEXT
Now find another one. Memorial hunters NEVER rest!@
