The National WWII Museum's vault houses nearly 250,000 artifacts. While many items in the collection are on exhibit, the majority of artifacts are kept safely in storage to be used for research and future exhibitions, or are undergoing restoration. The Museum has a large collection of wartime memoirs, as well as a growing collection of more than 9,000 personal accounts conducted with veterans from all branches and who served on all fronts.
DIGITAL COLLECTIONS
The Digital Collections of The National WWII Museum offers an opportunity to browse select Oral History and Photograph collections and license images and videos for a wide variety of uses.
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Curator's Choice: A Sailor’s Letter Home
A look past the pages of a written letter home.
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Curator's Choice: The Book of the Dead and Dying
A small notebook by Charles Don Page records the defining moment in 212 men’s lives under the Imperial Japanese Army.
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Curator's Choice: Nuremberg Trial Visitor
The courtroom of the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg hosted nearly 400 visitors each day, including 250 members of the international press. The Museum’s collection contains items from some of these visitors, American service members who wanted to sit in on one of the most significant trials in history.
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Steel Memories: From USS Arizona to the World Trade Center
We remember events in different ways. Tangible objects can serve as a reminder of past events.
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The Homeward Bound Pennant
To celebrate the end of the war and the journey back to the United States, US Navy ships often flew long pennants to commemorate their time overseas.
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The Sinking of the SS Athenia
This is the story of Michael McShane and how he survived the sinking of the SS Athenia, the first ship torpedoed by a U-boat in World War II.
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Curator's Choice: Gifts from the "Geneva Man"
Diaries provided by the Red Cross and the YMCA occupied many long hours of those held in German POW camps. Assistant Director for Curatorial Service Kimberly Guise discusses how the Museum’s collection of this surprising genre has grown substantially over the last 20 years of the Museum’s life.
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Curator's Pick: The St. Lo Collection
Learn the story of one of the early collections acquired by the Museum.
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Curator's Pick: The Weapons Collection
Highlights from the Collection over the last 20 years.
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Curator's Pick: Items From the Front Lines
Hear about four unique items from our Collection that saw action.
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Building Collections, Remembering Lives: 20 Years of Collecting at The National WWII Museum
As The National WWII Museum celebrates year 20, we look back at some collection highlights.
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Memorial Day: A New Orleans Neighborhood Remembers
On Memorial Day and every day, the name of Richard McCurdy, killed in action during Operation Torch, and other boys like him should be kept alive and their sacrifices and those of their families remembered. They were and are part of a nation, a city, a neighborhood, and a family.