Best known for his fishing scenes, war convoys, and marine battle scenes, Anton Fischer was born in Germany and came to New York City in 1903. Among his illustrated books were Moby Dick, Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and Treasure Island. He was known for his technical accuracy, as well as the portrayal of men’s emotions.

Civil War drum of the 4th New York Heavy Artillery, carried by E.B.A. Miller, drummer boy of Company A. Miller enlisted on August 27, 1862, and served until June 3, 1865, playing the drum in the battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and the Siege of Petersburg.

Double breasted frock coat belonging to Lt. Col. Edmund Rice, commander of the 19th Massachusetts Infantry. Wounded at Antietam and twice again at Gettysburg, where he won the Medal of Honor, Rice was captured by Pickett’s men and managed to escape and return through Confederate northern Virginia back to Union lines.

The Pamplin Collection of the Civil War is the largest in private hands and is exhibited primarily at Pamplin Historical Park and the National Museum of the Civil War Soldier in Petersboro, Virginia (www.pamplinpark.org/).  Confederacy President Jefferson Davis autograph with Confederate flags, created to help raise funds for the Confederate cause during the Civil War.

Bullet struck Diary, pocketwatch and belt plate carried by Sergeant Francis M. McMillen CO. C 110th. REGT OHIO VOL. INF. Petersburg Virginia, March 25, 1865. Diary transcript “We were ordered out to ASSAULT and drive the REBEL, PICKET LINE, but the first assault, in which I was, failed for want of numbers. The book was in my breast pocket and received the ball. Which was intended to take my life, but thanks to the Book, watch and belt plate I AM STILL ALIVE.”, June 23, 1911.

Photograph of Cadet George Armstrong Custer at West Point on the eve of the Civil War.  The Pamplin Collection holds letters, photographs, and other artifacts and documents relating to Custer.

The above concurred on the 33 anniversary of my birt. I am now an inmate of the Central Branch National Military Home.

General Yamashita (1885 –1946) was a leading general in the Japanese Imperial Army throughout World War II. He was most famous for conquering the British colonies of Malaya and Singapore, earning the nickname “The Tiger of Malaya”. He subsequently commanded the Fourteenth Area Army in the Philippines at the end of the war, surrendering to General Douglas MacArthur’s forces on September 2, 1945. Yamashita was executed by the Americans following his 1946 trial for atrocities and war crimes in the Philippines. 

The “Presentation” sword was given to Yamashita by the Emperor of Japan in the spring of 1945, just months before the surrender of the Japanese in the Philippines. It was made especially for the general by Imperial sword maker Imai Sadashige. The sword (seen in the black-and-white photograph being carried by Gen. Yamashita at his surrender) was personally surrendered to Major Clifford Freeland, a member of Gen. MacArthur’s staff and, coincidentally, a former fellow student of judo with Gen. Yamashita when Freeland lived in Japan in the early 1930s.

1880s Kiowa Tribe cross. 

Crucifix given by Father Pierre-Jean De Smet to Henry Little John, son of the Sioux chief Sitting Bull in 1868. De Smet was one of the most respected missionaries in the West and was greatly trusted by the Nez Perce and Flathead tribes with whom he worked.

The crucifix is Spanish colonial and comes from Peru.

A ciborium from South America, ca. 1850.  A ciborium is a vessel, originally in the shape of a drinking cup in Ancient Greece and Rome, used to refer to a large covered cup designed to hold hosts for, and after, the Eucharist, thus the equivalent for the bread of the chalice for the wine.

The photograph shows the crew, under Captain Robert Morgan, at their base in England. 

Documents here include the Okinawa surrender document of the Japanese Imperial Forces, signed by Japanese officers and the American Commanding General Joseph “Vinegar Joe” Stillwell at Yokohama on September 2, 1945.

Documents relating to the Battle of Okinawa, fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II.  The battle lasted from early April until mid-June 1945. After a long campaign of island hopping, the Allies were approaching Japan and planned to use Okinawa, as with Iwo Jima, as a base for air operations on the planned invasion of the Japanese homeland. Four divisions of the U.S. 10th Army and two Marine Divisions fought on the island.  The battle has been referred to as the “typhoon of steel” in English, referring to the ferocity of the fighting. The battle resulted in the highest number of casualties in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Japan lost more than 77,000 soldiers, and the Allies lost more than 14,000. 

Rescript of the Japanese Imperial Declaration of War on the United States and Great Britain. Signed and published December 8, 1941, the day after Japanese airplanes bombed Pearl Harbor. This rescript (decree) of the Japanese Emperor’s wartime declaration lays out the rationale for Japan’s war against the Allies

At the top: “Winsome Winn,” by John Clymer (American, 1907-1989). A prolific illustrator for the Saturday Evening Post, Leatherneck Magazine, and the Marine Corps Gazette, Clymer was known for his work that captured nature and the American West. Here, Clymer portrays the crew of an American bomber about to embark on a mission. At right are a shoulder patch from a Army Airborne uniform and flight sunglasses.