U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center
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[edit] Address and Contact Info
Address: Museum, Visitors Center, Research Library, and Archive, 220 Army Heritage Dr., Carlisle, PA 17013.
Mailing Address: 950 Soldiers Dr., Carlisle, PA 17013.
Phone: (717) 245-3971
Web page: http://www.usahec.org.
Online Finding Aid:
Archivists (principal contacts for advice on the collection):
[edit] Hours and usage restrictions
[edit] Collection Summary
The U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center (AHEC) is the nation’s premier facility for interpretation, research, and preservation of the Army’s history. In an effort to tell the Army’s history through the eyes of its soldiers, the AHEC combines the familiar Army Military History Institute (MHI), the future Army Heritage Museum, a state of the art Conservation Center, Visitor and Education Center, and the Army Heritage Trail. The AHEC moved into a newly built facility last year on a 55-acre tract of land located adjacent to the Carlisle Barracks golf course. This 67,000-square-foot building provides enhanced protection for the MHI collection and improved facilities for patrons and staff. While the Heritage Trail nears completion, the AHEC breaks ground in fall 2006 on the Visitor and Education Center. The Museum and Conservation Center are scheduled to be complete by end of FY 2009.
The Army Heritage Museum, scheduled to open in 2009, is designed to highlight an extensive collection of military artifacts related to the service of individual soldiers throughout the history of the Army. The museum’s mission is to examine the experience of the individual soldier through the objects that they used, wore, saved, and collected. These objects speak most eloquently of the soldier’s service to his country long after the soldier can no longer speak for himself. The wealth of individual soldier’s stories depicted in the 50,000 square feet of exhibit galleries serve to illustrate the history of the Army and bring it to life.
The Visitor and Education Center will be the hub of the new complex, and will provide a general orientation area for visitors to the AHEC. Besides being the architectural highlight of the site, the Visitor and Education Center will include a lecture hall, conference facilities, classrooms, auditorium, restaurant, and rotating display gallery. The Visitor Center’s education programs will include both in-house and outreach programs of national scope for primary, secondary, and continuing education. The center also offers a variety of special events throughout the year including two living history events on the Army Heritage Trail, a nine-stop historical recreation of different theaters of operations and time periods. The conference facilities cater to veterans groups, special interest history organizations, and national conferences. The Visitor and Education Center also distributes the famous veteran’s survey from which is recorded the history of the American soldier, past, present and future.
The U.S. Army Military History Institute is the Army agency charged with the collection, preservation, and making available for study of source materials (other than official records) relating to the American Army and ground warfare. The holdings include 325,000 printed books dating from 1494; 60,000 periodicals including 9,708 bound volumes; 1,700,000 photographs dating from the Mexican War; 11,000,000 manuscripts to include personal manuscripts, diaries, letters, and memoirs; 19,500 maps; 252,000 authority publications; artifacts; video and audio recordings; and microforms.
Areas of particular strength include a large collection of published unit histories, books on U.S. and foreign military affairs, personal papers of key U.S. Army officers of the 20th century, and Civil War manuscripts and photographs. The Veteran’s Survey Project (Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and Cold War) are important collections gathered through the canvassing of surviving veterans from these conflicts. The institute also contains oral history transcripts of extensive interviews with retired senior officers and civilian officials of the U.S. Army.
Conservation Center. The AHEC embodies the highest standards of quality for conservation and preservation of photographs, manuscripts and the artifacts of the Army. The Conservation Center will serve to build on this mission with a 35,000 square foot, state of the art Museum Support Facility scheduled for construction in FY 2009. The multi-functional structure is slated to house conservation and analytical laboratories as well as macro object storage for the Army Heritage Museum. The Conservation Center will take a holistic approach to its mission; individual object treatment and whole collections care; cutting-edge conservation science research to benefit the collection; educational opportunities for the public dealing with proper stewardship; and care of cultural and historical heritage materials.
The Army Heritage Trail sits on the grounds of the AHEC, is a mile long, and highlights all of the Army’s major campaigns with artifacts and periodic vignettes. Settings include Revolutionary War earthwork redoubt, a section of the Antietam battlefield, a Civil War winter encampment with cabins, a World War I trench system, a World War II company area, a replicated section of the Omaha beachhead on D-Day, and an interpretation of the Viet Nam helicopter air assault concept. Designed as a stage for living history presentations by living historians serving as interpreters, the trail is open now for visitors.
[edit] Usage Discussion
Suggestions for approaching the material:
Housing and getting by for less in the area:
