'To serve! Women, World War 2 and the persistence of memory' will open on February 1 at the Western Plains Cultural Centre and will cast an eye back at the many contributions made by the women of the Central West throughout World War 2.

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According to curator Kent Buchanan, the exhibition will take a look not only at the historical stories of women during the world's largest conflict, but also examine the difficulty in cataloguing and understanding history.

"The main thrust of this show is highlighting the function of a museum as a vessel for collective information and for telling stories, that's not just true of museums, it's also true of libraries, local studies and other organisations like that," Mr Buchanan said.

"The show is kind of about the way we collect those things and in particular, we're using the example of the women of World War 2 in Dubbo and other aspects of that," Mr Buchanan.

One of the key groups examined in the exhibition is the Voluntary Aid Detachment, an auxillary to the Red Cross, who provided aid in many ways throughout the war effort.

"That involved a lot of women working throughout the community to assist the war effort," Mr Buchanan said.

The other major group studied in the exhibition are the Merrymakers, an organisation who provided entertainment and levity to the community during the war.

"The Merrymakers were a group of young Dubbo women who would put on performances during the war for the townsfolk, they'd raise money for the war effort and for the soldiers based here at the army camp, where the zoo is now," Mr Buchanan said.

"They'd perform and help people through what was a pretty grim time."

The exhibition, situated in the Dubbo Regional Museum and combining historical items with real life accounts from people who were involved, will run until May 3.