Hampton Roads Naval Museum - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Hampton Roads Naval Museum is one of the 12 Navy museums that are operated by the Naval History & Heritage Command. It celebrates the long history of the U.S. Navy in the Hampton Roads

Hampton Roads

Hampton Roads is the name for both a body of water and the Norfolk–Virginia Beach metropolitan area which surrounds it in southeastern Virginia, United States...

region of Virginia. It is co-located with the Nauticus National Maritime Center in downtown Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....

. In 2009, the Hampton Roads Naval Museum was accredited by the American Association of Museum Accreditation, the gold standard for museum accreditation.

Collections

The museum’s permanent exhibits include material on the Battle of the Chesapeake

Battle of the Chesapeake

The Battle of the Chesapeake, also known as the Battle of the Virginia Capes or simply the Battle of the Capes, was a crucial naval battle in the American War of Independence that took place near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay on 5 September 1781, between a British fleet led by Rear Admiral Sir Thomas...

(1781), the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

in Hampton Roads, the Great White Fleet

Great White Fleet

The Great White Fleet was the popular nickname for the United States Navy battle fleet that completed a circumnavigation of the globe from 16 December 1907 to 22 February 1909 by order of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. It consisted of 16 battleships divided into two squadrons, along with...

, World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

and the Cold War

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

. Museum holdings are strong in the areas of naval prints, ship models and underwater archaeology

Archaeology

Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...

. The Hampton Roads Naval Museum is the official repository of the remains of two Civil War shipwrecks: USS Cumberland

USS Cumberland (1842)

The first USS Cumberland was a 50-gun sailing frigate of the United States Navy. She was the first ship sunk by the ironclad CSS Virginia....

and CSS Florida

CSS Florida (cruiser)

CSS Florida was a cruiser in the Confederate States Navy.Florida was built by the British firm of William C. Miller & Sons of Toxteth, Liverpool, and purchased by the Confederacy from Fawcett, Preston & Co., also of Liverpool, who engined her...

History

The museum opened on August 31, 1979 in the historic Pennsylvania House. This building, a replica of Independence Hall, is one of the state pavilions remaining from the 1907 Jamestown Exposition

Jamestown Exposition

The Jamestown Exposition was one of the many world's fairs and expositions that were popular in the United States in the early part of the 20th century...

, a world's fair. A major effort during the museum’s tenure at Pennsylvania House was the 1984 installation of a large exhibit on the Civil War in Hampton Roads.

In the 1980s the city of Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk, Virginia

invited the museum to relocate to a new downtown maritime center. The Navy accepted the offer, and in 1994 the Hampton Roads Naval Museum opened in the Nauticus National Maritime Center. With the move, the museum’s exhibits doubled in size.

In 2000 the museum undertook management of the battleship USS Wisconsin

USS Wisconsin (BB-64)

USS Wisconsin , "Wisky" or "WisKy", is an , the second ship of the United States Navy to be named in honor of the U.S. state of Wisconsin...

, which was berthed next to Nauticus that year and opened to the public on April 16, 2001. In December, 2009, the Navy donated the battleship to the city of Norfolk, ending the museum's supervision of the ship.

Museum programs and resources

Special temporary exhibits in recent years have included "Animals and the US Navy", "Cuba Libre: The Spanish-American War in the Caribbean" and "Pax Americana: The US Navy in the Era of Violent Peace". The museum also offers guided tours, a lecture series, and educational programs. An active volunteer corps participates in all museum functions. A reference library, archive and photographic collection specializing in regional naval material are open to the public by appointment.

External links

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