Two summer interns installed a new exhibit Tuesday at the Museum of Missouri Military History in the halls of the Missouri National Guard headquarters.
University of Missouri-Columbia senior history majors Luke Davis and Michael Monahan are in their third week of a summer internship with the museum.
The museum has had an internship relationship with MU for 14 years, although usually the interns have come in the fall or spring, museum director Charles Machon said.
"We're fortunate to have them," Machon said of Davis and Monahan. "They're doing a great job."
Capt. John Quin of the Missouri Air National Guard said headquarters is hosting a drill this weekend, which means "at least several hundred people" will see the plexiglass displayed-encased exhibit on the efforts of the Guard's 35th Infantry Division during World War I.
"I think it's important to not forget the origins of where they come from," Davis said of the division's history. He added remembrance is especially important around Memorial Day, given the heavy casualties the division incurred in the Meuse-Argonne offensive in the trenches of France. More than 1,000 of the 35th's soldiers were killed, and more than 6,200 others were wounded.
Quin said about two-thirds of the division at thet time of its WWI creation was comprised of Missouri guardsmen. The other third were from Kansas, with a few Nebraskans mixed in, too.
Before he later became the 33rd president of the United States, Harry S Truman served as a captain of 35th's Battery D of the 129th Field Artillery.
Among the artifacts on display is a soldier's tunic with the original patches. "It's pretty rare to get a tunic with the actual patch," Davis explained. Soldiers would often rip the patches off after they returned, thinking it wasn't a fashionable style.
Also in the case is an original bedroll, which a soldier placed over a cot. Storage pockets dangled off the edge to hold items like shoes.
Davis and Monahan's internships last for 120 hours this summer, and they average about six hours a day. Their work will earn them some credit for an upper-level course in the history program. However, this being the first time they've really handled historical artifacts or put an exhibit together, the experience has quickly become something more.
Monahan said he worked at a grocery store last summer, but "this is something I wouldn't mind doing as a job," he said of the museum work. He's from St. Peters, and Davis from Des Moines, Iowa. They commute to Jefferson City from Columbia together this summer.
Quin said visitors at the museum down the hill can ask to come up and see the exhibit in headquarters.
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