KEY TAKEAWAYS: The National WWII Museum opens “Drawn to Combat: Bill Mauldin and the Art of War” on July 16. The traveling exhibition features original drawings, wartime publications and personal artifacts from Bill Mauldin’s career. A free public reception and panel discussion will feat ure curator Chase Tomlin, Nat Mauldin and historian Todd DePastino. The exhibition will remain on display in New Orleans through April 18, 2027.   The National WWII Museum will open a new special exhibition this week highlighting the life and work of Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Bill Mauldin, whose illustrations chronicled the experiences of American soldiers during World War II. The exhibition, “Drawn to Combat: Bill Mauldin and the Art of War,” opens Thursday, July 16, with a free public reception at 5 p.m. followed by a panel discussion at 6 p.m. at the museum’s campus in downtown New Orleans. The exhibit will remain on display through April 18, 2027. Organized by the Pritzker Military Museum Library, the traveling exhibition examines Mauldin’s career from his early artistic development through World War II and into the postwar years. According to the museum, the exhibit features original drawings and sketches, wartime publications, correspondence and personal artifacts documenting the cartoonist’s work and influence. The opening program will include a discussion featuring National WWII Museum Curator Chase Tomlin, Nat Mauldin, the cartoonist’s son, and Mauldin historian Todd DePastino. Visitors will have an opportunity to view the exhibition before and after the presentation. Museum officials said the exhibit explores how Mauldin used illustration to depict the daily realities faced by American troops serving on the front lines in Europe, making him one of the most influential American cartoonists of the 20th century. The exhibition will be housed in the museum’s Senator John Alario Jr. Special Exhibition Hall. Support for the exhibition was provided by the Lois and Lloyd Hawkins Jr. Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Scott Petty Jr., and Joseph and Deborah Rucci. Founded in 2000 as the National D-Day Museum and later designated by Congress as America’s National WWII Museum, the New Orleans institution preserves and interprets the American experience during World War II through permanent and traveling exhibitions, educational programming and public events. ...read more read less