NAR Cosponsors Smithsonian's WWII Exhibit
(May 7, 2004) -- The NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® will cosponsor "So Proudly We Hail," an exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History that will honor World War II veterans and the flag under which they served.
The temporary exhibition, to be located adjacent to the current "Star Spangled Banner" exhibition, unites for the first time in one exhibition four historic flags from the war. The exhibit opens May 27 to coincide with the dedication of the National World War II Memorial on the National Mall and runs through Sept. 6.
Included in the exhibition will be the American flag raised at Iwo Jima in 1945; the first American flag to enter Berlin in 1945; a flag made with material from a captured Nazi flag, a blue dress uniform and some salvaged red fabric; and the 31-star flag carried by Commodore Matthew C. Perry entering Japan in 1853 and brought aboard the U.S.S. Missouri for the formal surrender of Japan.
NAR also is sole sponsor of "Within These Walls …," a permanent exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History that includes the struggles and triumphs of the WWII generation. It showcases 200 years of American history as seen from the perspective of one house that stood from Colonial days through the mid-1960s in Ipswich, Mass. The final setting in the exhibition illustrates how a woman and her grandson served on the home front in 1942 by growing and canning vegetables, conserving fat, and saving tin cans. Their story reflects the many personal sacrifices towards the war effort made by thousands of American families.
"REALTORS® are proud to honor the men and women who sacrificed so much and to whom we owe such a great debt," says Walt McDonald, NAR president and broker-owner of Walt McDonald Real Estate of Riverside, Calif. "By cosponsoring 'So Proudly We Hail,' we are helping to make possible the display of the very flags that inspired a generation to achieve the greatest victory in world history. Never before have these flags flown together. Now they are joined to celebrate the dedication of the World War II Memorial, and REALTORS® helped to make it happen."
—NAR