National World War II Museum

Founded as the National D-Day Museum by historian Stephen Ambrose, this New Orleans institution chose its city because Andrew Higgins built the landing craft that carried troops ashore on D-Day there. It opened on 6 June 2000, the 56th anniversary of the Normandy landings. Congress later designated it America's official museum of the Second World War, and its scope widened to cover the whole American experience of the conflict.

The museum now spreads across several pavilions on a campus in the Warehouse District. A restored Higgins boat stands among the early exhibits. Large aircraft, including a B-17 Flying Fortress, hang in the soaring US Freedom Pavilion. The Campaigns of Courage galleries follow the Road to Berlin and the Road to Tokyo through recreated settings, artefacts and oral histories of veterans. The Solomon Victory Theater shows Beyond All Boundaries, a multisensory film narrated by Tom Hanks.

Drawing more than 700,000 visitors a year, the museum rewards a full day. Many visitors find there is too much to see in a single visit.