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 2535 items.
Page 1 of 254
[Military in India.] 8679 Photonegative 1906
- Notes
- Company catalog card included
- Similar to RSN 22825; frames in separate envelopes
- Currently stored in box 3.1.31 [52]
- Date
- 1906
- 1900-1910
- publisher
- Underwood & Underwood
- photographer
- Gridwood
- Local number
- RSN 14331
- Video number 13701
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
[Military.] 60 Interpositive
- Notes
- Currently stored in box 1.2.17 [4], moved from [17]
- Date
- 1900-1910
- publisher
- Underwood & Underwood
- photographer
- Ponting, Herbert George 1870-1935
- publisher
- H.C. White Co
- Local number
- RSN 8439
- Video number 07603
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
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 Flower of the Isthmusian Troop before the Barracks. Active no. 1492. [Stereo photonegative, 1905
- Notes
- Possibly taken by one of the Underwood brothers. Company catalog card included. Currently stored in box 2.1.12 87. Original nos. 68694; 5054
- Date
- 1905
- 1900-1910
- publisher
- Underwood & Underwood
- photographer?
- Underwood, Elmer 1859-1947
- Underwood, Bert 1862-1943
- publisher
- American Stereoscopic Co
- Local number
- RSN 9991
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Duke of Connaught and Distinguished Fellow Officers of His Majesty's Imperial Army. [Active no. 336 : stereo photonegative,] 1902
- Notes
- Company catalog card included
- Currently stored in box 3.1.3 [196]
- Date
- 1902
- 1900-1910
- publisher
- Underwood & Underwood
- Subject
- Arthur Prince, Duke of Connaught 18509-1942
- Hampton Court Palace (England)
- Local number
- RSN 11724
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Inlets and hilly shores of the fjords around Christiania (E. from Akershus fortress to Oslo). 703 Photonegative 1905
- Notes
- Company catalog card included
- Same as RSN 19627
- Currently stored in box 3.1.7 [221]
- Date
- 1905
- 1900-1910
- publisher
- Underwood & Underwood
- photographer
- Underwood, Elmer 1859-1947
- Local number
- RSN 12110
- Video number 11380
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
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
Sturdy Swiss Guards of His Holiness, Pius X, on duty in a corridor of the Vatican, Rome. Active no. 2077 : stereo photonegative
- Notes
- Currently stored in box 3.1.23 [165]. Company catalog card included
- Date
- 1895
- 1900-1910
- publisher
- Underwood & Underwood
- Subject
- Pius X Pope
- Local number
- RSN 13604
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Tower of Belem, built A.D. 1520 for protection of Tagus River entrance--N.E. to Convent dos Jeronymos--Lisbon. 2318 Photonegative 1900
- Notes
- Company catalog card included
- Currently stored in box 3.1.26 [177]
- Date
- 1900
- 1900-1910
- publisher
- Underwood & Underwood
- photographer
- McKern
- Local number
- RSN 13811
- Video number 13086
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
[Military scene in Greece.] 2487 Photonegative 1906
- Notes
- Company catalog card included
- Currently stored in box 3.1.27 [172]
- Date
- 1906
- 1900-1910
- publisher
- Underwood & Underwood
- photographer
- Jarvis
- Local number
- RSN 13962
- Video number 13237
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
