The Virginia WWI and WWII Profiles of Honor Tour will be in the City of Danville on Saturday, June 15, where it will be located at the Danville Children’s Festival at the Carrington Pavilion. The mobile museum, free and open to the public, features stories and artifacts from dozens of Virginians who served in World War I and World War II as well as a full-scale model of an M5A1 Stuart tank. The tour, which brings to life Virginia’s integral role in world history, is part of a statewide commemoration marking the 100th anniversary of World War I and the 75th anniversary of World War II.
The Profiles of Honor Tour visit is part of the Children’s Festival, which will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the Carrington Pavilion.
Modeled on the highly successful Virginia Civil War 150 HistoryMobile, the Profiles of Honor Tour brings an interactive exhibit, housed in a 36-foot trailer, to museums, schools, libraries, historical societies, and local events. In its first year of touring, the Profiles of Honor Tour reached 20,000 visitors, including 6,000 students, over the course of 44 tour stops across the state. The tour is scheduled to visit every region of Virginia in the coming year. Among its major tour stops in 2018 will be the Commonwealth's commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day in Richmond, marking the end of World War I.
In addition to its mobile exhibit, the tour brings document scanning equipment, supported by the Library of Virginia, to each site it visits. Visitors are invited to bring World War I and World War II-related images, letters, and documents to be scanned, preserved, and made publicly accessible in the Library of Virginia’s archives. In 2017, the project collected nearly 3,000 scans.
“The Profiles of Honor Tour honors the Virginians who fought for our freedom and helps to ensure that their legacy remains for new generations as World War I and World War II slip further away from public memory,” said Virginia House of Delegates Speaker M. Kirkland Cox, who serves as the Chairman of the Virginia World War I and World War II Commemoration Commission. “Both wars were fought not only overseas, but from the shipyards, factories, military bases, and homes of Virginians. The Profiles of Honor Tour revitalizes that history, from the home front to the frontlines.”
The Profiles of Honor Tour will travel throughout Virginia and beyond in the coming year. An initiative of the Virginia World War I and World War II Commemoration Commission, which is a commission of the General Assembly, the Profiles of Honor Tour is managed in partnership with the Virginia Tourism Corporation and the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles. A number of Virginia’s noted museums and historical societies contributed to the exhibit.
For more information on the Profiles of Honor Tour and other initiatives of the Virginia World War I and World War II Commemoration Commission, visit www.VirginiaWWIandWWII.org.
