National Mounted Warrior Museum…The National Mounted Warrior Museum (NMWM), the newest addition in the Army Museum Enterprise, celebrated its grand opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on 18 September. The Mounted Warrior Museum, a joint effort between the Army and the National Mounted Warfare Foundation, is located on a seventeen-acre campus behind the Marvin Leath Visitor Center near the main gate at Fort Cavazos (formerly Fort Hood), Texas; it is accessible to all visitors—it does not require going through post security. The NMWM tells the story of the Army’s mounted forces, from early horse cavalry to modern mechanized cavalry and armor, along with the history of Fort Cavazos, its role in the development of mounted warfare, and units assigned to the post. For more information on the NMWM, visit the National Mounted Warfare Foundation website at https://nmwfoundation.org.
Lafayette Sword…A sword gifted by the Marquis de Lafayette to a soldier who served in the Corps of Light Infantry went on display on 5 November at the Museum of American Revolution in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The sword, made of iron and steel and accompanied by a leather scabbard, was given to Sergeant Jeremiah Keeler of Ridgefield, Connecticut, who served in the Corps of Light Infantry during the Battle of Yorktown. Keeler’s sword, donated to the Museum of the American Revolution by his great-great-great-great-granddaughter, is part of a display that includes items that once belonged to Sergeant James Davenport, another soldier who served in the Corps of Light Infantry. For more information, visit the Museum of the American Revolution website at www.amrevmuseum.org.
Park Day…The Battlefield Trust, the United States’ largest organization dedicated to battlefield preservation, has announced that its 2025 Park Day will take place on 26 April. Since 1996, the Battlefield Trust’s Park Day has served as an annual nationwide event where thousands of volunteers from historical societies and round tables, Boy and Girl Scout troops, church groups, ROTC units, veterans organizations, and many others have contributed over 450,000 hours of labor to preserve America’s battlefields. Park Day projects include painting signs, garden maintenance, trash and leaf removal, marker clean-up, trail and fence building, and many more. For information on Park Day, visit www.battlefields.org/parkday.
National WWI Museum…On 11 November, the National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri, opened three new exhibits to the public. One of the exhibits will give visitors a peek into the workings of a field hospital and the realities and innovations of battlefield medicine during World War I. Evocative of a bombed-out church that would have been repurposed for treating the wounded, visitors are presented with stories from the war, interactive displays, and a visual representation of the chaos in a working field hospital. A second is a newly produced immersive film projected onto the inner surface of a recreated battle crater, allowing visitors to access deeply affecting scenes that depict the horrific reality of World War artillery. In a third exhibit, the Renault FT17 Tank already on display has been repositioned for a more complete view, including the ability to see real-life battle damage on its side, and artifact cases and interactive media monitors. Two interactive stations will allow visitors to learn more about the FT17 through a 3-D model of the tank; onscreen buttons will let users rotate the model to examine it from all angles and even view inside the tank. For more information on these and other exhibits at the National WWI Museum and Memorial, visit www.theworldwar.org.
Princeton Battlefield…Thanks to a collaborative effort between the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, the American Battlefield Trust, and the Princeton Battlefield Society, visitors to the Princeton Battlefield in New Jersey will be greeted with new historical signage in time for the 250th anniversary of the Revolutionary War. Unveiled on 18 November, the new signage includes ten traditional waysides with historical content and one “battle window” that uses extracted elements from James Peale’s well-known painting on an acrylic window, allowing visitors to better grasp how the 3 January 1777 battle unfolded on the landscape. Future plans call for additional signage, a new park entrance, a visitor orientation circle, and a walking path.
