American Battlefield Trust Launches Animated Map Covering America's Wars From 1754 to 1945

(Washington, D.C.) — The American Battlefield Trust has launched its most ambitious animated battle map to date: America’s Wars 1754-1945. Produced by the award-winning Wide Awake Films, the stunning visuals and compelling storytelling bring to life the events and military engagements that shaped America over the course of two centuries, from the beginning of the French and Indian War in 1754 to the end of World War II in 1945.

“America’s narrative is about more than statesmen and founding documents; our story was written by millions of citizen soldiers on nearly 250 years’ worth of battlefields,” said Trust president David Duncan. “We are proud to present this comprehensive overview in a compelling and accessible format so that this and future generations can find inspiration from these hallowed grounds around the globe.”

The nearly hour-long production is the culmination of long planning and collaboration. It uses a combination of dramatic narration, historic and modern images, motion graphics, reenactment footage, and music to share the mesmerizing stories of more than a dozen individual conflicts, including the Revolutionary War, Indian Wars, Mexican-American War, Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War I and World War II.

The documentary premiered in a real-time event to the Trust’s 376,000 YouTube subscribers on September 4, with viewers lauding the innovative approach and comprehensive coverage of America’s history with war.  

“Fantastic video. I will have my kids watch this to get a basic understanding of the history of this great nation, and the sacrifices made by all those brave soldiers, and their families,” one viewer exclaimed.  

“Absolutely top notch. I’ll be watching it again,” said another, in real time during the mass-watch debut. 

The America’s Wars 1754-1945 Animated Map joins the Trust’s broader series of about two dozen more focused animated map videos, which have collectively been viewed more than 20 million times. The Animated Maps collection, brings alive individual battles or campaigns from the American Civil War, Revolutionary War and War of 1812 to life, complete with troop movement animations, narratives, video, and more.

“The America’s Wars 1754-1945 Animated Map is by far our most ambitious installment of the series,” said the Trust’s Chief Historian Garry Adelman. “In moving outside our usual period of coverage, we wanted to provide a learning opportunity to explore the earliest conflicts of America’s citizen soldier and what they did after. By taking a more wholistic view of American military history, we’re able to place the 105-plus battlefields where the Trust has saved land into greater context.”

The longtime collaboration between the Trust and Wide Awake Films, of Kansas City, Mo., has yielded a host of exceptional projects together, including the Animated Maps collection and Step Into History videos that superimpose historic photos into their exact location on the modern landscape. No stranger to the massive effort involved with recreating battle scenes and compiling and editing down hundreds of hours of footage, the company worked tirelessly, paying meticulous attention to detail to compose this production.

“We've done a number of shorter form historical documentary pieces with the Trust, but it was a real honor for us to meet the challenge of this one, covering the conflicts that helped define America over several centuries,” said Shane Seley, Founder and Director at Wide Awake Films. “The most rewarding part of the experience is always knowing that we help the Trust raise awareness about these wars as well as money to save the land where this history occurred.”

Like all of the Trust’s award-winning educational content, the America’s Wars 1754-1945 Animated Map is available free of charge for anyone to watch, including the thousands of schools that already use Trust animated maps and other short videos in their classrooms. The full production is organized into chapters for individual conflicts to assist those who many prefer to utilize selected segments.

About the American Battlefield Trust

The American Battlefield Trust is dedicated to preserving America’s hallowed battlegrounds and educating the public about what happened there and why it matters today.  The nonprofit, nonpartisan organization has protected more than 57,000 acres associated with the Revolutionary War, War of 1812 and Civil War. Learn more at www.battlefields.org. 

About Wide Awake Films

Wide Awake Films is a creative media group focused on innovative, efficient execution of historical, commercial and corporate video and film production. The production company excels in producing compelling and powerful corporate messages, as well as Emmy award-winning historical content for museums, documentaries and television programming.

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