Treasures of the West Point Museum
West Point A stroll through the West Point Museum’s galleries overlooking the Hudson River is a walk through military history, spanning more than 4000 years of warfare. Weapons, dioramas, uniforms and accoutrements range from a 2000 B.C. Egyptian battle axe, to the first laptop computer issued to cadets in the 1980s. The museum began as a collection of war trophies captured in the Revolutionary War, and originally retained and used as cadet training aids in the new national military academy established on the west bank of the Hudson River in 1802. Following the war with Mexico in 1848, West Point officially became the national repository of war trophies, to include captured Mexican flags. It was designated as an Artillery Museum, and in 1854 officially opened to the public. Since then, the West Point Museum has expanded - to be the oldest and have the largest diversified collection of military artifacts, in this hemisphere - and is one of the largest in the world. Though not restricted to any branch of military applications, the numerous artifacts on display focus primarily on land warfare. The galleries span four floors. The Large Weapons Gallery includes artillery pieces, a WWI tank, and a full size model of the atomic bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki ending WWII with Japan. The Small Weapons Gallery displays small arms - from Stone Age clubs and spears, to swords, to shoulder-fired weapons, pistols and machine guns. Both the West Point Gallery and the History of the U.S. Army Gallery feature the evolution of the academy and the development of the cadet curriculum throughout the many military conflicts of our nation. Organized in chronological periods, the collection features an extensive display of items pertaining to the wars fought by the United States. Much emphasis is placed on the history of both the military academy and the role of academy graduates in the nations’ wars and peacetime challenges, such as space exploration and non-military public service. “What is special about West Point is the academy history, age, and lineage, and the accomplishments of its graduates,” said David Reel, chief curator and director of the museum. The Wall of Medal of Honor displays the many congressional medals awarded to academy graduates. General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s pistol, General George Patton’s machine gun, uniforms, swords and many graduation rings are some of the numerous items on display that were owned by famous academy alumni. The collection also serves as a repository of information available for study, examination and academic research by the Corps of Cadets. However, the 2,500 items currently on display in the academy’s Olmsted Hall are a small fraction of the 60,000 pieces of militaria, collected from around the world over two centuries. Many unusual items in the collection are not on display, such as a hunting vest once owned by Herman Goering, Reichsmarschall of Nazi Germany, and the uniform of Joachim Von Ribbentrop, who was Hitler’s foreign minister. Many prototype weapons and duplicates are retained in the museum’s collection. The curators decide which items are to be displayed, with some rotated approximately every two years. The museum is open daily from 10:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m., except on certain holidays, in Olmsted Hall at West Point. For more information, write to museum@usma.edu.