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 240 items.
Page 1 of 24
Boche Snipers Hidden in Shell Potted Ruins
- Description
- Charcoal and crayon sketch, with touches of graphite, on heavy cream wove paper. Two German soldiers peer out of the window of a shell-torn building. One soldier has a rifle pointed out of the window, through the slats of the shutters. A sign stenciled on the wall below the window has been partially erased; it reads "NACH FIS..." and has an arrow, pointing right, beneath it.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1918-08
- associated date
- 1917-1918
- associated person
- War Department
- artist
- Harding, George Matthews
- ID Number
- AF*25739
- catalog number
- 25739
- accession number
- 64592
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Through a Shell Hole
- Description
- Charcoal and crayon sketch on heavy textured cream wove paper. Several American soldiers eat out of tin cans, as seen through a shell-hole in a wall. A broken window shutter is in the foreground.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1918-07-08
- associated date
- 1917-1918
- associated person
- War Department
- artist
- Harding, George Matthews
- ID Number
- AF*25750
- catalog number
- 25750
- accession number
- 64592
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
American Artillery Relieved at Deumx After Days of Hard Fighting
- Description
- Charcoal sketch on illustration board. The work depicts the exhausted members of an artillery unit moving away from the line at Deumx, France. A line of soldiers, horses, wagons, and artillery pieces are moving through a forest. Many of the soldiers, whether riding on horses, vehicles, or walking, are slouched and stooped.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1918-07
- associated date
- 1917-1918
- depicted
- 1918-07-19
- associated person
- War Department
- artist
- Morgan, Wallace
- ID Number
- AF*25758
- catalog number
- 25758
- accession number
- 64592
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Bomb Proof Billets and Chow
- Description
- Charcoal sketch on white paper. In this outdoor scene, soldiers prepare and eat a meal. The outdoor mess area is framed by a house on the right, and dugouts built into a rise in the ground. A caisson is in the center foreground.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1918
- associated date
- 1917-1918
- associated person
- War Department
- artist
- Morgan, Wallace
- ID Number
- AF*25763
- catalog number
- 25763
- accession number
- 64592
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Dugouts of the 5th Marines
- Description
- Charcoal sketch on white paper. The work depicts American soldiers at their dugouts in a forested area.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1918
- associated date
- 1917-1918
- associated person
- War Department
- artist
- Morgan, Wallace
- ID Number
- AF*25765
- catalog number
- 25765
- accession number
- 64592
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
A Lock in the Rhone Canal
- Description
- Ink wash sketch on white paper. The work depicts a lock on the Rhone Canal in German Alsace. A German village is visible on the left. A Chauchat gun emplacement manned by two allied soldiers is on the right.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1918
- associated date
- 1917-1918
- associated person
- War Department
- artist
- Peixotto, Ernest Clifford
- ID Number
- AF*25795
- catalog number
- 25795
- accession number
- 64592
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
After the Battle of Charteves
- Description
- Charcoal and ink wash sketch on white paper. The work depicts a damaged village in the aftermath of the Battle of Charteves. A shell-torn church and a number of smaller shell-torn buildings make up the village. A man, possibly a soldier, is in the street in the right foreground.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1918-07
- associated date
- 1917-1918
- associated person
- War Department
- artist
- Peixotto, Ernest Clifford
- ID Number
- AF*25800
- catalog number
- 25800
- accession number
- 64592
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Barracks at Battalion Headquarters on the Verdun
- Description
- Ink wash on paper. The work depicts American barracks on the Verdun front in France near the end of World War I. The roofs of the barracks and adjacent dugouts are protected by sand bags.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1918
- associated date
- 1917-1918
- associated person
- War Department
- artist
- Peixotto, Ernest Clifford
- ID Number
- AF*25808
- catalog number
- 25808
- accession number
- 64592
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Billets in Cell of the Old Monastery of Rangeval
- Description
- Charcoal sketch on blue-gray paper. The work depicts a group of soldiers billeted in a cell of the old Monastery of Rangeval near Boucq, France. A drawing on the wall above the sleeping pallets shows France (the woman) killing "the German monster." Soldiers are lounging on cots beneath the drawing. A line of drying laundry hangs on the left side of the sketch.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1918
- associated date
- 1917-1918
- associated person
- War Department
- artist
- Peixotto, Ernest Clifford
- ID Number
- AF*25809
- catalog number
- 25809
- accession number
- 64592
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Bombarded Town in the North, Toul Sector
- Description
- Charcoal sketch on white card stock. The work depicts damaged buildings in a town near Toul which has been deserted by its civilian population. The shell-torn buildings are at the left of a canal running through the middle of the sketch. A soldier is watering two horses in the canal at the right.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1918
- associated date
- 1917-1918
- associated person
- War Department
- artist
- Peixotto, Ernest Clifford
- ID Number
- AF*25810
- catalog number
- 25810
- accession number
- 64592
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center