It’s been over a year since the William A. Brookshire Military Museum in Memorial Tower opened to the public to exhibit LSU’s history as a military institution and honor veteran alumni. Today, the museum continues to expand as it tries to attract more visitors.
Since opening, the most frequent attendees have been tours from the University Laboratory School. When students from the lab school are learning about a specific time period, the museum will bring out appropriate military equipment for them to touch and see up close. The goal is to inspire the students to learn more about history in a different and more exciting way than in a classroom.
In an interview with the Reveille, Director James Gregory said entertainment is a big part of the museum and that every story can be informational. Information and context allows the museum to present more controversial items, such as a Nazi armband that was taken by a soldier as a souvenir after liberating a town in Europe during World War II.
“Attendance has gone up, but we still need to do more, and we still need people to realize it’s open and available because this building is kind of terrifying for new students. They think they’re not allowed to come in,” Gregory said. “As much as it is a memorial, it’s a living memorial… It’s open to the public, and there are some great stories in here, and they all connect to LSU and anyone can relate. If you’re a football fan, you know, we’ve got stories about football. If you’re a baseball fan, Alex Box and his story are in here. There are stories for everyone. We just need people to know that they can come and actually experience it.”
The museum saw 500 people walk through its doors last month and has experienced increasing attendance since opening.
In an effort to get visitors to return, the museum is rotating out its displays to showcase different stories.
“The old way of permanent exhibits is ridiculous. Not only is it bad for the artifacts, but once you come into a museum that doesn’t change, you don’t have to come back,” Gregory said. “If you come back a year later, you’re not going to see anything new, and that’s death for a museum.”
Two new exhibits have been displayed this month with more to come in the future.
Ethan Fruge, a history sophomore, interns at the museum and is researching a future story about to be exhibited. Fruge said his job is “coming up with a story that both captures the reader and gives them the information but doesn’t bore them to death.” The museum offers Fruge the ability to research people from LSU’s history and craft, then showcase that story from a person’s past involving LSU’s military history.
“He will sit here and design the exhibit. He will write it all out. He’ll bring it to me, and I will cut all of it off… It’s all just a learning curve on the job. And every museum is different,” Gregory said.
Gregory referenced a museum he worked at in Stillwater, Oklahoma, where he quickly dug a drainage ditch as the rain poured down.
“No one taught me that. No one can prepare you for that,” Gregory said. “It’s just, you’re gonna have to figure it out. And then these exhibits, no one can prepare you for the reality of it’s short and concise. So you just have to figure it out. I’m here to at least guide the students in that direction.”
Currently there are five student employees, but the museum plans to offer more work opportunities in the future.
The majority of the museum’s items are stored in an archive in the basement of the LSU Library within a climate-controlled space in acid free boxes, preventing further deterioration. The museum is also working on scanning all of its documents for electronic storage, hoping one day to open this database to the public. For the curious, “vault tours,” are an experiment the museum’s currently working on where people can tour items in storage.
Donations are requested from anyone who has items or information about someone who is connected with LSU and served in the military, with stories and photographs being the most requested items, something hard to come by in the advent of digital media.
“If they’ve got photos, they’re all digital, so no one’s printing them out. So if they delete them, they’re gone,” Gregory said.
As one of the most recognized and photographed buildings on campus, William A. Brookshire Museum takes on the role of being a memorial as well as a museum that informs students about LSU’s history.
A collection sits on display inside the museum on Friday, Sept. 1, 2023, in Memorial Tower on LSU's campus.
