Each month the staff picks an artifact from the collection to highlight online. The artifact collection at the U.S. Army Transportation Museum totals over 7,000 individual artifacts. While all artifacts in the collection support the mission and scope of collection for the Museum, some artifacts are directly associated with specific persons, actions, campaigns, and events in history while others serve more broadly as technical and typological examples of Army Transportation materiel and equipment during specific historic periods.
Museums have artifacts to provide tangible objects that are relevant to the history being communicated. Often artifacts serve as the prime survivor to an event and are associated with persons, places, and actions. Experiencing artifacts in the context of a museum or as part of a study collection provides an immediate and raw contact with the past. Therefore, an artifact is the essential element that makes a museum unique. When a museum displays artifact(s) it becomes an interpretive tool that supports understanding of the wider history. This allows the individual to interact with real items, linking the visitor to the lessons of the past and giving context for innovation.
For example, the U.S. Army Transportation Museum has over 135 transportation vehicles on display: one type being trucks. Many of our trucks are typological, meaning they represent the model and type most commonly used during specific eras in Army history. However, we also have more provenanced trucks such as the Eve of Destruction which has a detailed and unique story. With a single artifact we are able to interpret the history of gun trucks while also exploring more diverse topics like logistical convoys in Vietnam, Transportation Soldiers’ stories in combat, and important leaders and heroes of the Transportation Corps. Additionally, the Eve of Destruction displays the overall technological development of gun trucks during that era and into the 21st-Century as it was used in the development of the modern gun trucks of Iraq and Afghanistan, like the Ace of Spades, also on display at the Museum.
The entire catalog of previous “Artifacts of the Month” can be found below.
Artifact of the Month | Month | Year |
---|---|---|
Airgeep II VZ-8P (B) | September | 2020 |
ARTFT-6 Forklift, Rough Terrain, 4x4, Three Ton | September | 2023 |
Bearpaw Snowshoes | December | 2021 |
Caffeine Gum | August | 2021 |
Caiman (MRAP), Category II, 6x6 | October | 2023 |
1-½ Ton 6x6 Cargo Truck, TTSW | January | 2024 |
CH-21C Shawnee | October | 2020 |
CH-37 Mojave | July | 2022 |
Coast Artillery Guidon | October | 2021 |
Coat, Noncommissioned Officer's, Women's Motor Corps of America | December | 2018 |
Cold Weather Gauntlets, World War II | November | 2023 |
Conestoga Wagon | April | 2022 |
Cybernetic Walker | February | 2020 |
DCO-205-H International | May | 2021 |
De Lackner Aerocycle | December | 2023 |
Diesel-Electric Locomotive, RSD-1 | August | 2018 |
European Service Box Car, 4 wheel, 20-ton | November | 2020 |
Flag, Project Lead Dog 1960 | May | 2022 |
General William E. DePuy Field Jacket | May | 2023 |
Ground Effects Machine (GEM) | April | 2020 |
H-13E Sioux | August | 2023 |
Handi-Talki Radio | August | 2019 |
Artifact of the Month | Month | Year |
---|---|---|
Jerry Can | June | 2020 |
John Deere M-Gator, 6x4 | September | 2019 |
Kukri knife, with scabbard | January | 2022 |
L-19/O-1 Bird Dog | July | 2019 |
Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel (LCVP) | May | 2020 |
LARC XV | August | 2020 |
LCM - 6 | September | 2021 |
M1 Helmet - Viet Nam War | July | 2018 |
M129A1C, Semitrailer, 12-ton, 4 wheel | June | 2023 |
M151A2 MUTT | July | 2020 |
M1924 Phillips Pack Saddle | October | 2022 |
M29 Weasel, Amphibious Truck | May | 2019 |
M41 Truck, Cargo, 5 Ton | February | 2021 |
M52A2, 5-ton Truck, Tractor, 6x6 | January | 2021 |
Officer’s Field Bag | September | 2022 |
M911, Tractor, 25-ton, 8x6 | March | 2023 |
M923 5-ton Gun Truck “Ace of Spades” | January | 2020 |
M923 Cargo Truck, 5-Ton, 6x6 (Modified) | April | 2023 |
Marine Camouflager Uniform | June | 2021 |
Model 94x43 Truck, Tractor, 4-5 Ton, 4x4 | March | 2021 |
Model 94x43, Truck, Tractor, 4-5 Ton, 4x4 | June | 2022 |
OH-58D Kiowa Warrior | February | 2022 |
Pennant, Motor Truck Co, Quartermaster Corps, Circa 1917 | November | 2018 |
Railway Training Caboose | February | 2023 |
Artifact of the Month | Month | Year |
---|---|---|
SGT William W. Seay, Congressional Medal of Honor Awardee | August | 2022 |
Smoking Jacket | March | 2019 |
Souvenir Wall Hanging, USAT Logan c. 1910 | April | 2019 |
SPC, Jeremy Church | April | 2021 |
Texas Barrier, 457th Transportation Battalion | December | 2019 |
TH-55 Osage | October | 2018 |
Thanksgiving Menu | December | 2022 |
The 1919 Transcontinental Motor Transport Corps Convoy | March | 2022 |
The Crow | September | 2018 |
The Kukri | February | 2019 |
Thermometer, Alcohol, Absolute Zero | November | 2021 |
U-8F Seminole | January | 2019 |
UH-1B Iroquois - Arctic Colors | July | 2023 |
Unit Crest, 36th Transportation Battalion | June | 2019 |
US/UN/ROK Blood Chit | October | 2019 |
VZ-4DA DOAK Model 16 | July | 2021 |
WAC Poster | November | 2019 |
XM-147 Amphibious Truck “SuperDUKW” | December | 2020 |
13th Transportation Helicopter Company Pocket Patch | January | 2023 |
1917 Motor Truck Company Pennant | February | 2024 |
384th Army Band Busby | November | 2022 |
713th Railway Operating Battalion Distinctive Unit Insignia | March | 2020 |