USS Saratoga Museum Foundation, Inc.

PROVIDENCE — The US Naval Academy has transferred one of its most significant exhibits to the USS Saratoga Museum Foundation for permanent display here in Rhode Island. The donation consists of interpretive/educational signage plus a number of museum-quality display cases. The collection includes more than 30 large panels, consisting of photos, texts and interpretive graphics, which tell and show the history of the US Navy during World War II and the Cold War.

The average panel is six to seven to feet tall and three to four feet wide, although one is eleven feet long and eight feet high. Several of the panels are interactive with video and audio; the Pearl Harbor display, for example, includes speakers which broadcast President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Day of Infamy" speech.

The museum in Annapolis closed in December for 18 months to allow for a complete renovation and makeover of the facility.

“This exhibit was designed in 2000 as a prototype for the type of exhibit the new museum would contain," said Frank Lennon, president of the USS Saratoga Museum Foundation. "However, Naval Academy officials decided not to include it in the new facility, which will ultimately focus on the history of the Naval Academy and the contributions of Annapolis graduates, rather than the history of the Navy.

“The educational community in Rhode Island has benefited greatly from this Annapolis decision,” Lennon concluded.

The original plan was for the exhibition to go to the USS Massachusetts at Battleship Cove, but at the last minute the Fall River museum was unable to accommodate it.

“We only learned of this opportunity on December 20th,” said Lennon. The material had to be picked up before January 14, when the old building housing the museum was to be turned over to the contractor for gutting and reconstruction.

Despite the tight time frame and the intervening holidays, management of the local museum leaped at the opportunity to obtain a fully-developed exhibit of such quality and value.

“We were able to pull this off thanks to the resourcefulness and responsiveness of our volunteers,” Lennon stated. Richard Picard of Woonsocket and Patrick Twohey of North Smithfield flew to Baltimore on January 12, and picked up a pre-arranged rental truck close to the airport. They then drove to Annapolis, where USNA Museum Curator Scott Harmon was awaiting their arrival.

Assisted by Twohey’s uncle, Annapolis area resident James Donahue, they dismantled the exhibit and loaded the truck until dark. “We took everything we could, and filled every inch of that truck interior,” said Picard.

The panels that now reside at the Saratoga Museum Foundation's headquarters in North Kingstown originally formed the heart of an exhibition entitled "100 Years and forward..." which opened at the U.S. Naval Academy Museum in April of 2000.

According to the USNA museum website, the purpose of the exhibit was two-fold. In addition to depicting the history of the Navy from the beginning of the 19th Century through Vietnam, “...the exhibition serves as a prototype for a new approach to exhibits that will be installed in the near future in a renovated Preble Hall. These exhibitions will combine art, artifacts, models, text, and audio-visual presentations to interpret in a more exciting and engaging way the history of the Academy.”

A slideshow depicting the fully-mounted exhibit in Annapolis can still be seen at the Naval Academy Museum website:

http://www.usna.edu/Museum/hundredslideshow.htm

[NOTE: these photos show the fully-mounted exhibits, complete with artifacts and memorabilia which have been retained by the Naval Academy. The Rhode Island donation consists of the graphic panels and empty display cases only.]

“A few of the panels depicting the early days--Spanish American War and World War I in particular--went to academic departments at the Academy,” said Lennon. “But we have the lion’s share, to include the complete presentation of World War II.”

“This exhibit puts us in the education business immediately,” says John Gibbons, one of Saratoga's project managers. "Because of its size, a permanent display of the whole exhibit must await the opening of the aircraft carrier Saratoga. In the interim, we would welcome working with another group or organization with a space large enough to effectively display it all.”

For now, segments of the exhibit will be on display on a rotating basis at the Foundation’s headquarters, 6854 Post Road, North Kingstown. For further information, please call 401-398-1000.

The USS Saratoga Museum Foundation, Inc., a 501 (c) (3) non-profit, has worked for nine years to turn the vision described above into reality.

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Last Updated:
1/23/08