Military - Overview
The Museum's superb military collections document the history of the men and women of the armed forces of the United States. The collections include ordnance, firearms, and swords; uniforms and insignia; national and military flags and banners; and many other objects.
The strength of the collections lies in their enormous depth. Some 3,000 military small arms and 2,400 civilian firearms document the mechanical and technological history of the infantryman's weapons from the beginning of the gunpowder era to the present. Among the 4,000 swords and knives in the collection are many spectacular presentation pieces. The collections also include Civil War era telegraph equipment, home front artifacts from both world wars, early computers such as ENIAC, Whirlwind, and Sage, and materials carried at antiwar demonstrations.
"Military - Overview" showing 279 items.
Page 1 of 28
Soviet poster, Nazi caricature
- Description
- During World War II, after the breakdown of the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact, the Soviet news agency TASS issued a series of propaganda posters. Topics included anti-Nazi caricatures and Socialist Realist art encouraging the war effort. Beginning in June 1941, the Union of Soviet Artists established a publishing collective to produce the posters on an almost daily basis. Because they were displayed in the windows of the news agency's Moscow office, they are known as TASS window posters. It is estimated that about 1,500 different posters were produced between 1941 and 1945.
- Well-known artists and poets worked on the designs and captions, and most of the posters were produced in limited editions using the stencil process for both graphics and text. Many posters were completed and reproduced within 24 hours, making them very responsive to political issues and war news. Copies were distributed abroad by VOKS, the Soviet Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries. Their messages helped present the USSR favorably to its new allies, including the U.S. The Museum has six of these posters received in 1943 through VOKS. Other collections outside Russia include the University of Nottingham in England and Columbia and Cornell universities in the U.S.
- TASS window poster No. 514 is a caricature of a Nazi soldier in his underwear carrying his clothes, with another figure at his side. It may be titled "Ragmen," but the point of the satire is not clear from the image.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1942-1943
- 1942
- artist attribution
- Lebedev, Vladimir
- author
- Marshak, Samuel
- ID Number
- GA*18848
- accession number
- 164567
- catalog number
- 18848
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
The Russian Imperial Guard awaiting the German Emperor, Peterhof Pier. [Active no. 1081 : photonegative,] 1897
- Notes
- Company catalog card included
- Similar to RSN 19907
- Currently stored in box 3.1.11 [197]
- Date
- 1897
- 1900-2000
- publisher
- Underwood & Underwood
- Subject
- Imperial Guard (Russian)
- Local number
- RSN 12425
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Soviet poster, Hitler caricatures
- Description
- During World War II, after the breakdown of the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact, the Soviet news agency TASS issued a series of propaganda posters. Topics included anti-Nazi caricatures and Socialist Realist art encouraging the war effort. Beginning in June 1941, the Union of Soviet Artists established a publishing collective to produce the posters on an almost daily basis. Because they were displayed in the windows of the news agency's Moscow office, they are known as TASS window posters. It is estimated that about 1,500 different posters were produced between 1941 and 1945.
- Well-known artists and poets worked on the designs and captions, and most of the posters were produced in limited editions using the stencil process for both graphics and text. Many posters were completed and reproduced within 24 hours, making them very responsive to political issues and war news. Copies were distributed abroad by VOKS, the Soviet Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries. Their messages helped present the USSR favorably to its new allies, including the U.S. The Museum has six of these posters received in 1943 through VOKS. Other collections outside Russia include the University of Nottingham in England and Columbia and Cornell universities in the U.S.
- TASS window poster No. 503. Six-panel poster with caricatures of Hitler's rise to power, including the Munich beer-hall putsch, book burning, and the publication of Mein Kampf. Three artists—Mikhail Kupriyanov, Porfiry Krylov, and Nikolai Sokolov—known collectively as Kukryniksy are credited with the design, and poet Deyman Bedny wrote the text.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1942-1943
- 1942
- caricaturist
- Kukryniksy group
- ID Number
- GA*18850
- accession number
- 164567
- catalog number
- 18850
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Soviet poster, Bombing Berlin
- Description
- During World War II, after the breakdown of the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact, the Soviet news agency TASS issued a series of propaganda posters. Topics included anti-Nazi caricatures and Socialist Realist art encouraging the war effort. Beginning in June 1941, the Union of Soviet Artists established a publishing collective to produce the posters on an almost daily basis. Because they were displayed in the windows of the news agency's Moscow office, they are known as TASS window posters. It is estimated that about 1,500 different posters were produced between 1941 and 1945.
- Well-known artists and poets worked on the designs and captions, and most of the posters were produced in limited editions using the stencil process for both graphics and text. Many posters were completed and reproduced within 24 hours, making them very responsive to political issues and war news. Copies were distributed abroad by VOKS, the Soviet Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries. Their messages helped present the USSR favorably to its new allies, including the U.S. The Museum has six of these posters received in 1943 through VOKS. Other collections outside Russia include the University of Nottingham in England and Columbia and Cornell universities in the U.S.
- TASS window poster No. 707 is a two-panel poster showing bombing of Berlin on top, with Hilter, Goering, and Goebbels cowering in a bunker below.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1943
- ID Number
- GA*19084
- accession number
- 167088
- catalog number
- 19084
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
[Airmen fueling military airplanes : black-and-white photoprint]
- Summary
- Unidentified photographer
- Cite as
- American Petroleum Institute Photograph and Film Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1940
- 1950
- [ca. 1940-1950]
- 1940-1950
- donor
- American Petroleum Institute
- Local number
- 00071102.tif (AC Scan)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Sound Velocity Corrector, A Mathematical Chart
- Description
- This device assists in calculations of changes in the range of a gun because of meteorological conditions, particularly wind speed and temperature. A rotating disc and pointer attached to the plastic base have the scales required to correct for wind speed. A scale toward the bottom of the base gives the temperature correction. Both of these corrections are in percentages of the range. Summing them gives the total meteorological correction as a percentage of the range. One then can use a range correction chart to find the actual range correction.
- A mark on the front of the instrument reads: Signal Corps U. S. Army (/) SOUND VELOCITY CORRECTOR PT-62/TSS-1 (/) Order No. 3531-CEGSA-45 G. FELSENTHAL & SONS - CHICAGO.
- The instrument was designed and made for the United States Army by G. Felsenthal & Sons of Chicago in 1945. It had Felsenthal designation FAS-2.
- For a related range correction chart, see 1977.1141.43.
- Reference:
- Accession file.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1945
- maker
- G. Felsenthal & Sons, Inc.
- ID Number
- 1977.1141.42
- catalog number
- 336426
- accession number
- 1977.1141
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Log Book With Computer Bug
- Description
- American engineers have been calling small flaws in machines "bugs" for over a century. Thomas Edison talked about bugs in electrical circuits in the 1870s. When the first computers were built during the early 1940s, people working on them found bugs in both the hardware of the machines and in the programs that ran them.
- In 1947, engineers working on the Mark II computer at Harvard University found a moth stuck in one of the components. They taped the insect in their logbook and labeled it "first actual case of bug being found." The words "bug" and "debug" soon became a standard part of the language of computer programmers.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1947
- user
- Hughey, Ray
- director
- Aiken, Howard Hathaway
- user
- Harvard University
- maker
- IBM
- Harvard University
- Aiken, Howard
- ID Number
- 1994.0191.01
- catalog number
- 1994.0191.1
- accession number
- 1994.0191
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Soldier's Pocket Bible
- Description
- Religion has an essential role in military history, which is reflected in military material. Steel-covered New Testaments were popular keepsake gifts for soldiers going off to fight in World War II. Advertised in newspapers and magazines as protection from bullets, the small books were designed to be carried in the pocket over one's heart as both symbol and shield.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- 1996.0217.01
- accession number
- 1996.0217
- catalog number
- 1996.0217.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Soviet poster, Making Hand Grenades
- Description
- During World War II, after the breakdown of the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact, the Soviet news agency TASS issued a series of propaganda posters. Topics included anti-Nazi caricatures and Socialist Realist art encouraging the war effort. Beginning in June 1941, the Union of Soviet Artists established a publishing collective to produce the posters on an almost daily basis. Because they were displayed in the windows of the news agency's Moscow office, they are known as TASS window posters. It is estimated that about 1,500 different posters were produced between 1941 and 1945.
- Well-known artists and poets worked on the designs and captions, and most of the posters were produced in limited editions using the stencil process for both graphics and text. Many posters were completed and reproduced within 24 hours, making them very responsive to political issues and war news. Copies were distributed abroad by VOKS, the Soviet Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries. Their messages helped present the USSR favorably to its new allies, including the U.S. The Museum has six of these posters received in 1943 through VOKS. Other collections outside Russia include the University of Nottingham in England and Columbia and Cornell universities in the U.S.
- TASS window poster No. 512 shows a man and a woman making hand grenades. In vivid Socialist Realist style, the poster both encourages and supports the war effort.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1942-1943
- 1942
- artist attribution
- Vyalov, Konstantin Aleksandrovich
- author
- Mashistzov, A.
- ID Number
- GA*18849
- accession number
- 164567
- catalog number
- 18849
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
[Mixed group at base of huge tree. No. US B-12. Stereo interpositive.]
- Notes
- Currently stored in box 1.2.20 [10]
- Date
- 1900
- 1910
- 1900-1910
- publisher
- Underwood & Underwood
- H.C. White Co
- Local number
- RSN 8623
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
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