History of The U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center
The U.S. Army Military History Institute pre-dates the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center by over 30 years. Formed in 1967 as the Military History Research Collection, a branch of the U.S. Army War College Library, the institute became the primary repository for unofficial Army historical materials. Official U.S. Army records and other materials belong to the National Archives. For most of its existence, the institute was housed in Upton Hall on Carlisle Barracks. Built in 1941 as an academic building for the Medical Field Service School, Upton Hall was adequate as a library but ill-suited for the size and preservation needs of a major archive.
Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera formed the Army Heritage and Education Center in June 1999 as a means of bringing an Army museum to Carlisle and promoting the holdings of the institute. His successor Thomas E. White approved the construction of a new facility, the present-day Ridgway Hall, in 2001. He stated:
"We will relocate its documents and holdings--the unofficial history of the United States Army--into a newly built state-of-the art archive, give that facility responsibility for administering historical documents and photographs Army wide, and associate it with an educational facility and a museum".
The center, including the holdings of the institute, relocated from Upton Hall to Ridgway Hall in 2004, officially opening on September 24. The Army named the building for former Army chief of staff General Matthew B. Ridgway (1895–1993), commander of the 82nd Airborne Division in World War II and of United Nations forces in the Korean War.
The Army Heritage Museum, formed with the center in 1999, held its artifacts mostly in storage in various places on Carlisle Barracks before the construction of its interim storage facility beside Ridgway Hall in 2004. By 2005, the center created the Army Heritage Trail and began placing historical markers and large artifacts such as tanks and field artillery on display for public view. The first permanent structures, the Civil War cabins, officially opened in October of that year. The Trail continued to grow and evolve over time, and continues to expand today. In 2009, the USAHEC broke ground for the Visitor and Education Center as plans for the continued growth of the campus continued. In May 2011, the Center opened to the public and serves as the welcome and orientation site for all visitors to the campus. The building features a 7,000-square-foot (650 m2) exhibit space and two multipurpose rooms for conferences and other presentations.
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