Last week Richard Noyce, our Curator of Artefacts, was in the USA for a research visit funded by the Museum’s Society of Friends. He made a bit of time in his busy schedule to write this blog post for us.
Richard poses with a Trident Missile! |
The trip didn’t start off too well – my flight to Washington was delayed an hour and then it took 2 hours to clear immigration! Luckily, after that things improved dramatically! I spent Sunday morning looking at the sights including The White House, Capitol complex, Washington Monument and The Air and Space Museum . Afterwards I met some friends for a BBQ.
A display at the Naval Museum |
On Monday I began by visiting the Navy Museum – a great place - the ship models are massive compared to some of the ones we have back in Portsmouth. I met Commodore Eric Fraser of the Naval Attaché at the Embassy this afternoon and spoke to him about our 20th and 21st Century Galleries Project. He seemed very keen on hearing about it and thought that the Americans would also be interested in finding out more about what we are doing.
After I left the Embassy I visited The Lincoln Memorial, The Pentagon andArlington Cemetery . Off to Annapolis tomorrow.
After I left the Embassy I visited The Lincoln Memorial, The Pentagon and
On Tuesday I visited the Naval Academy Museum at Annapolis which is the US equivalent of Britannia RN College at Dartmouth but with 4,000 students at a time! (BRNC has about 300 at any one time) They loved showing me about 30 captured British ensigns from 1812! The Museum are busy looking for possible items for loan so there is lots of potential for us to work with them.
US Marine Corps Museum |
Wednesday saw me visiting the US Marine Corps Museum at
We were buzzed by the presidential helicopter on the way to
On Friday I visited the Mariners Museum at