The Marine Corps Museum was located on the first floor of the Marine Corps Historical Society in Building 58 of the Washington Navy Yard, 9th and M Streets (southeast), Washington, D.C. It housed a wide variety of exhibits with artifacts relating to the history of the U.S. Marines. It also contained a collection of art relating to the Marines and a historical Time Tunnel. [1] For many years, the Marine Corps Museum served as a center for preserving and showcasing the Marine Corps legacy. The museum closed on 1 July 2005, during the establishment of the National Museum of the Marine Corps.
In the early 20th century, the Marine Corps displayed historical items such as captured weapons and flags in war trophy rooms at the Headquarters Marine Corps and the Marine Corps Barracks in Washington, D.C. [2] In 1940, the Marine Corps established a proto-museum on the second deck of Little Hall at Marine Corps Base Quantico. [3] In 1952, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, General Lemuel C. Shepherd Jr., directed his staff to create a Marine Corps exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution after noticing no such display existed there. [3] The Marine Corps Historical Branch tasked reserve Major John H. Magruder III with developing the exhibit at the Smithsonian. [3]
Upon completion of an exhibit at the Hall of Military and Naval History at the Smithsonian Castle, Major Magruder went on to establish an expanded museum, which opened on 13 September 1960, in Building 1019 next to Little Hall. [3] The Marine Corps Museum continued to expand and eventually moved to Washington Navy Yard in 1977 after closing the Quantico location in 1976. [3]
The commandant of the Marine Corps (CMC) is normally the highest-ranking officer in the United States Marine Corps and is a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The CMC reports directly to the secretary of the Navy and is responsible for ensuring the organization, policy, plans, and programs for the Marine Corps as well as advising the president, the secretary of defense, the National Security Council, the Homeland Security Council, and the secretary of the Navy on matters involving the Marine Corps. Under the authority of the secretary of the Navy, the CMC designates Marine personnel and resources to the commanders of unified combatant commands. The commandant performs all other functions prescribed in Section 8043 in Title 10 of the United States Code or delegates those duties and responsibilities to other officers in his administration in his name. As with the other joint chiefs, the commandant is an administrative position and has no operational command authority over United States Marine Corps forces.
The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, also called the Air and Space Museum, is a museum in Washington, D.C., US. It was established in 1946 as the National Air Museum and opened its main building on the National Mall near L'Enfant Plaza in 1976. In 2018, the museum saw approximately 6.2 million visitors, making it the fifth most visited museum in the world, and the second most visited museum in the United States. In 2020, due to long closures and a drop in foreign tourism caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, museum attendance dropped to 267,000. The museum contains the Apollo 11 Command Module Columbia, the Friendship 7 capsule which was flown by John Glenn, Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis, the Bell X-1 which broke the sound barrier, the model of the starship Enterprise used in the science fiction television show Star Trek: The Original Series, and the Wright brothers'Wright Flyer airplane near the entrance.
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The National Museum of the Marine Corps is the historical museum of the United States Marine Corps. Located in Triangle, Virginia near MCB Quantico, the museum opened on November 10, 2006, and is now one of the top tourist attractions in the state, drawing over 500,000 people annually.
Randolph Carter Berkeley was a United States Marine Corps major general who received the Medal of Honor for his actions during the United States occupation of Veracruz.
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The United States Naval Academy Museum is a public maritime museum in Annapolis, Maryland, United States. A part of the United States Naval Academy, it is located at Preble Hall within the Academy premises. The museum has an area of 12,000 square feet (1,100 m2) with four galleries. It is currently headed by Director CDR Claude Berube, PhD USNR.
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