The Airman Heritage Museum at Lackland AFB is hosting the WWI Centennial Traveling Exhibit through 31 July, it’s final U.S. venue before traveling to Europe. The exhibit features 40 original (vintage) WWI posters to include the iconic “Uncle Sam Wants You” poster designed by noted American illustrator James Montgomery Flagg. The grand opening of the exhibit will be held on Thursday, June 16 at 3 p.m. when noted art historian Allison Hays Lane will be the featured guest speaker discussing the historical relevance of the poster art on display. The collection belongs to the San Antonio Public Library which acquired it from the Hertzberg estate of the multimillionaire owner and founder of the now defunct Herzberg Circus Museum. Hertzberg was a serious collector of early American illustration art. The WWI posters on display are valued at $40,000.

Augmenting the exhibition will be WWI artifacts and WWI reenactors providing living history vignettes. Ms. Lane will also speak in a scheduled lecture on the posters at the Airman Heritage Museum on Thursday, June 30 from 3-5 p.m. The public is invited to attend this exhibition that features some of the rarest WWI military-themed posters known to exist. After it concludes its final U.S. showing at the Airman Heritage Museum, the traveling exhibit will be sent to museums in Germany in 2017 and to museums in France in 2018, commemorating the last two years of the Great War in which Americans paid the ultimate sacrifice for freedom.