National WWI Museum and Memorial, publicly owned and headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, was founded in 1921 and employs approximately 60 individuals. Originally opened in 1926 as the Liberty Memorial, it was designated by the United States Congress in 2004 as the country's official museum dedicated to World War I, with Congress adding the designation as the country's official war memorial in 2014 as part of the Centennial recognition. A non-profit organization manages the museum in cooperation with the Kansas City Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners. It focuses on global events from the causes of World War I before 1914 through the 1918 armistice and 1919 Paris Peace Conference. The exhibit space, spanning 32,000 square feet (3,000 m2), is accessed by visitors across a glass bridge positioned above a field of 9,000 red poppies, where each poppy represents 1,000 combatant deaths.