The Chattanooga Regional History Museum will open a new exhibit, “The Way Ahead Looks so Dark”: Chattanoogans and the Second World War, on May 25th.
The exhibit chronicles the experience of Chattanoogans serving at home and abroad. Among the local residents you will encounter are Gilbert and Hubert Taliaferro who served in the European theater late in the war, and were involved in the last desperate battles as the Nazi Army defended the western German border.
You will also meet Barton Baker, a local Marine who served in the Pacific Theater, and Ira Douthitt, who was wounded at the Battle of the Bulge.
Featured artifacts include:
* Letters from Hubert Taliaferro detailing his experience as soldier and prisoner of war
* Baker’s tropical uniform and war trophies
* The boots worn by Ira Douthitt when he was wounded
* A soldier’s letter, detailing for a still grieving family the last hours of Gilbert Taliaferro’s life and the circumstances of his death.
Wartime service was not limited to the battlefields, and the exhibit covers domestic military service and the experience of homefront volunteers and workers.
It features a packed, untouched footlocker that belonged to John Paul Daniel, USN, when he served at Chicago’s Navy Yard, a Red Cross volunteer uniform, the records of a Ferger Place sewing group, and the diary kept by Hubert’s and Gilbert’s mother, Ida Taliaferro as she struggled to reconcile her loss with a greater purpose.
The Chattanooga Regional History Museum is open 11:00am until 5:00pm, seven days a week, except on major holidays. Admission is $4 for adults, $3.50 for senior citizens, $3 for children 5-18 years old, and $2.50 for students with college ID cards.
For more information, or to arrange group tours, call 423-265-3247.