A peerless collection representing not so much the leaders but the men who fought the battles. 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…
Category: Military
General Tomoyuki Yamashita.
“Presentation” sword and personal effects (kimono, sashes, suitcase, notebook case, wrist compass and land compass, cigarettes, slippers) of Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita. 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…
World War II Communion Set
We have pieces of a communion set carried across the fields of Normandy following the D-Day landings in the summer of 1944. The set includes sacramental cups for wine and trays for the bread. 1880s Kiowa Tribe cross. Crucifix given by Father Pierre-Jean De Smet to Henry Little John, son of the Sioux chief Sitting…
Memphis Belle
A rendering of the original nose painting for the famous WWII bomber, The Memphis Belle. The poster is from the 1944 documentary about the plane. The Memphis Belle is the nickname of a Boeing B-17F-10-BO Flying Fortress that flew 25 combat missions during WII, from England over France and Germany, with her crew intact. The…
World War II
The jacket belonged to famed war correspondent Ernie Pyle, who was killed by machine gun fire on Okinawa in April 1945. Pyle had previously covered the war in Africa and Europe. He was admired for his own courageous coverage of the infantry grunt, whose perseverance and fortitude, Pyle believed, were what won the war. Documents…
Propaganda, patriotism, and memorabilia from the Allied and Axis armies and their leaders
As part of its substantial holdings in more than two centuries of American military history, the Pamplin Collection has recently begun building its World War II section, with objects such as dog tags, uniforms, medals, photographs and newspapers, flags, propaganda, albums, and illustrations. Rescript of the Japanese Imperial Declaration of War on the United States…
American Revolutionary War
Musket This American Revolutionary period stocked musket uses a pre-French and Indian War lock and trigger guard of American-made brass. The barrel is also American-made. Sword Rare silver hilt Lion Head officer’s sword. Made in England in the 1760s. General George Washington carried an identical sword during the American Revolution. (Washington’s sword is in the…
The Pamplin International Collection of Art and History include many items relating to World War II.
This year’s exhibit showed a Japanese government POW flag, Signed by Prime Minister Tojo and other top ministers of the WWII government of Japan. Obtained by a guard at the Sugamo Prison, where the Japanese officials were incarcerated after the war. A Japanese Surrender card (often such cards were dropped from airplanes into enemy territory…
Uniform, medals and maps of Lt. Robert L. Keller
Who was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Silver Star, among other medals and awards, as a navigator on bombing expeditions in southern Europe, 1944-45. His plane, Dinah Might, flew dozens of missions out of northern Italy against enemy oil fields and fighter plane manufacturing plants. The painting of a B-25 (ca. 1944), is…
Medicine
Throughout the American Civil War in the South, the “pestilential atmosphere” produced high volumes of sickness associated with warmer climates, including malaria, typhoid, yellow fever, and other maladies. The “miracle drug” for Civil War physicians was quinine, used to fight malarial diseases. Among the thousands of Civil War objects within the Pamplin Collection is this…