The following items are on display at the National World War 1 Museum and Memorial located in Kansas City, Missouri.

 

This first one is part of a temporary exhibit titled Crucible: Life and Death 1918.

 

https://www.theworldwar.org/explore/exhibitions/current-exhibitions/crucible-life-and-death-1918

 

 

Closer views:

 

The left pocket has a reinforced hole for mounting some sort of decoration.

Shoulder board, and printed shoulder patch on the left side.

 

The patch has suffered the ravages of time, but it looks like a skull above a pair of downward facing crossed swords. At the bottom is some sort of round object (an orb, the sun?), with the remains of writing across the top.

 

EDIT: The design of the patch has been identified. See below.

Left side view, showing service stripes on the sleeve.

This is a 1914 uniform ensemble that is part of the permanent exhibit...

Closer view of the shirt. Unfortunately the shoulder boards were not at an angle where they could be photographed.

Officer's hat, and a close up of the confident machine gun crew on the poster.

Wonderful! Thank you for sharing.

Thanks for sharing! Sis and I are always thrilled to get to see Imperial and White Russian items. This is amazing! Glad you posted! Wish I lived close to Kansas City!

Very, very neat Gil, thanks for sharing.

More to come...

Wow - these are pretty spectacular. Most of the non-Red uniforms were destroyed by their owners during and after the Civil War (keeping them meant a long prison sentence or worse...) so the handful that made it out really have some stories they could probably tell...

Incredible to even see one!

Russian Nurse's Uniform and unit Red Cross flag.

Close ups..

Apparently a repurposed item from the Siberian Expedition...

Ulans Guidon...

This is from an earlier visit... I believe this is a Russian naval officer's cap. Unfortunately it was no longer on exhibit when I last visited.

This is an amazing collection. I wonder where the museum found these incredible items.

This is an amazing collection. I wonder where the museum found these incredible items.

 

Per the museum website:

 

"In 1920, the National WWI Museum and Memorial, then known as the Liberty Memorial Museum, began collecting objects and documents from all nations involved in the First World War.

 

Nearly 100 years later, the Museum and Memorial, along with the Edward Jones Research Center, is home to one of the largest Great War collections in the world – more than 75,000 items strong."

 

I can remember over the years when World War One objects held little interest for collectors, who seemed to be more focused on World War Two.

 

The museum also holds a large archive of photographs and printed material. You can access some of it from this link:

 

https://www.theworldwar.org/explore/online-collections-database

Thank you Gil. I've never seen so many Czarist/White Russian items in one place. I am still blown away.

With the help of one my reference books and the internet, I found the design of the patch for Kornilov's Shock Regiment. Apparently there were a number of variations, reportedly some of them painted on leather and others sewn from cloth. The were also medal versions made.

 

Shock Regiments were formed of the remnants of the Imperial Army that remained isolated throughout Russia after the Revolution had seized power. Kornilov's was one of the first units of the newly formed "Volunteer Army".

 

Kornilov was quite the character and is described on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavr_Kornilov .

 

A quick word about resources... I forgot I had this on my shelf, but one worth looking at is An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Uniforms of World I. It has over 40 pages on Russia including Imperial Russia and the Red and White Armies of the Revolutionary period.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Encyclopedia-Uniforms-World-Austro-Hungary/dp/0754823407

 

For the number of illustrations, both color drawings and period black and white photographs, it is very reasonably priced.

 

With that said, the artist seemed to struggle with certain uniform items. Some of the British Brodie helmets look a bit odd, as do the US Army "Montana" campaign hats. But if you can look past that, it looks to be a very good and affordable reference.

 

 

Boy, thanks for updating! This is amazing stuff! I'll have to go now and see if I can get that book from the library! While it is WWII I am drawn to as far as history . . . when it comes to militaria, I love the Great War stuff! Thanks for sharing! Very interesting about the Imperial uniforms being destroyed. Makes sense why there are so few. Cooler, then, that we can see even those few!

Thank you for sharing those pictures. My family and I enjoy Imperial Russian History and we aren't going to be in the vicinity of Kansas City anytime soon.