Naval War College Museum

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The Naval War College Museum is one of the twelve offical museums operated by the U.S. Navy under the direction of the Naval Historical Center and in coperation with the Naval War College.

[edit] History

The Naval War College established the Naval Museum in 1952, with the approval of the Chief of Naval Operations to manage its collections of historical artifacts. Since 1978, it has occupied its present quarters on Coasters Harbor Island in Narragansett Bay at Newport, Rhode Island. This building, now called Founders Hall, was originally built in ca. 1820 as the Newport Poor Asylum. The city of Newport and the state of Rhode Island donated this property to the U.S. Navy for the the U.S. Navy to use as the Naval War College. The College's first president, Rear Admiral Stephen B. Luce formally dedicated the building to the Navy's use. The building became famous in the years 1886-1889, when the College's second president, Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan first gave his lectures in this building that formed the basis for his famous book The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783 (1890). It is on the basis of this that the U.S. Deaprtment of the Interior listed the building in 1965 as the "Original Naval War College" in the National Register of Historic Places.

[edit] Museum

Today, the Naval War College Museum uses this building to display exhibits on three themes: (a) the history of the Naval War College since 1884; (b) the history of naval activities in the Narragansett Bay area since the colonial period; and (3) the history of the art and since of naval warfare since ancient times.