Session 12: THE UNKNOWN COLLECTION: PRESERVATION OF DOD'S MATERIAL CULTURE
Moderator: Norman M. Cary, Jr., Curator Branch, Naval Historical Center, Washington, D.C.

Opening remarks by moderator:

DOD does not have a centralized museum program, each service runs its own program, has its own philosophy. Collections are not primarily archeological collections, collections consist of historic artifacts and artwork

The U.S. Army Museum Program
Les Jensen, Curator, Museum Division, U.S. Army Center of Military History, Washington, D.C.

1. Museums, and collections, of the Army
   1. In 1830 the West Point Museum opened, Army's oldest museum
   2. U.S. Army is the third largest historical organization
   3. 750,000 cataloged artifacts in museums alone (Does not include archeological collections). Army also has historic districts and buildings
   4. When museums are lost to base closings, collections are redistributed to various Army museums
   5. Museums help to make better soldiers, show soldiers their American Military history
      
      
2. Regulations
   1. AR 870-5 - Umbrella regulation; chef of military history controls all issues regarding Army museums. Controls all Army historical artifacts
   2. AR 870-20 - Sets standards for management of Army museums and collections.

The Historical Naval Ships Association
Russ Booth, Past President, Historical Naval Ships Association

• Collection consists of 75 ships and small crafts (turns out to be the third largest fleet of ships in the world). Only two ships, the Nautilus and the Constitution, are still owned by the Navy. The rest of these ships are cared for by non-profit organizations.
• When ships were active they had huge crews and resources to take care of them. Now very small crews and resources have to take care of a large fleet of ships. Only the Nautilus and the Constitution receive money from the Navy.

U.S. Air Force Museum
Charles Worman, U.S. Air Force Museum Wright Paterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio

Air Force recently centralized museum operations, has a shorter history than the museums of the Navy and Army. Museums do not focus on aviators, exhibits focus on planes. Collections consist of 50,000 objects and 250 planes that are on exhibit (museum planes are not flown). Most planes are stored outside due to the lack of museum exhibit space inside for large artifacts like historic aircrafts.

The U.S. Navy Museum Program
Norman M. Cary, Jr.

1. Naval museums
   1. Museums are not centralized like the other organizations in DOD. A collections management nightmare, all museums are run independently, Navy is a very decentralized organization, dates back to when captains were in charge of their ships way out at sea
   2. A large loan program: objects are loaned to 1600 organizations, have 20,000 artifacts on loan
   3. Large model ship collection which is independently run and maintained within the Navy.
   4. The Naval Historical Center has a large underwater archeology program that exercises oversight over Navy shipwrecks. One of the purposes is to try to prevent unauthorized recovery from Navy ship and aircraft wrecks.