United States Army Center of Military History
Agency overview | |
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Formed | July 1943 |
Jurisdiction | United States Army |
Headquarters | Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, D.C., U.S. |
Agency executives |
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Parent agency | United States Army Training and Doctrine Command |
Website | history |
The United States Army Center of Military History (CMH) is a directorate within the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command.[1] The Institute of Heraldry remains within the Office of the Administrative Assistant to the Secretary of the Army.[1] The center is responsible for the appropriate use of history and military records throughout the United States Army. Traditionally, this mission has meant recording the official history of the army in both peace and war, while advising the army staff on historical matters. CMH is the flagship organization leading the Army Historical Program.
CMH is also in charge of the National Museum of the United States Army, at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
Mission
The center traces its lineage back to historians under the
The modern organization of the army's historical efforts dates from the creation of the General Staff historical branch in July 1943, with Lt. Col.
Since its formation, the center has provided historical support to the
Historical activities
Under the direction of the chief of military history and his principal adviser, the army's chief historian, CMH's staff is involved in some 50 major writing projects. Many of these efforts involve new research that ranges from traditional studies in operational and administrative history to the examination of such areas as procurement, peacekeeping, and the global war on terror. Those works underway and projected are described in the Army Historical Program, an annual report to the Chief of Staff on the Army's historical activities. All center publications are listed in the catalog Publications of the United States Army Center of Military History, which explains how to access them.
In addition, army historians maintain the organizational history of army units, allowing the center to provide units of the Regular Army, the Army National Guard, and the Army Reserve with certificates of their lineage and honors and other historical material concerning their organizations. The center also determines the official designations for army units and works with the army staff during force reorganizations to preserve units with significant histories, as well as unit properties and related historical artifacts.
CMH also serves as a clearinghouse for the oral history programs in the army at all levels of command. It also conducts and preserves its own oral history collections, including those from the Vietnam War, Desert Storm, and the many recent contingency operations. In addition, the center's end-of-tour interviews within the Army Secretariat and Staff provide a basis for its annual histories of the Department of the Army.
As tangible representations of the service's mission, military artifacts and art enhance the soldier's understanding of the profession of arms. CMH manages a system of more than 120 army museums and their holdings, encompassing some 450,000 artifacts and 15,000 works of military art.
The Chief of Military History is responsible for ensuring the appropriate use of military history in the teaching of strategy, tactics, logistics, and administration. This mission includes a requirement that military leaders at all levels be aware of the value of history in advancing military professionalism. To that end, the center holds a biennial history conference and workshop; publishes Army History, a professional bulletin devoted to informing the larger military history education community; and supplies readings for the army school system, including the ROTC community, and texts and other support for the army's staff ride program. In this effort, the chief of military history is assisted by a historical advisory committee that includes leading academic historians and representatives of the army school system.[6]
The center has a large collection of Nazi art and ephemera collected as part of Denazification efforts after the Second World War. The holdings include four watercolour paintings by Adolf Hitler and several notable propaganda paintings depicting Hitler including In the Beginning Was the Word and The Standard Bearer.[7]
Staff rides enable military leaders to retrace the course of a battle on the ground, deepening their understanding of the recurring fundamentals of military operations. As one of the army's major teaching devices, staff rides are particularly dependent on a careful knowledge of military history. Center historians lead rides directed by the Secretary of the Army and the Chief of Staff and attended by senior members of the army Staff.
It administers the army's Command History Program, to provide historical support to army organizations worldwide. In addition, since the first Persian Gulf War, the center has coordinated the deployment of military history detachments and the collection of historical data during peacekeeping and wartime operations, including those in northern Iraq, Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
Fellowships and publications
To stimulate interest in military history in the army and the nation, CMH sponsors professional programs.
- Fellowships: To encourage and support dissertations in military history by graduate students, the center offers up to four dissertation fellowships each academic year. These fellowships carry a $9,000 stipend and access to the center's facilities and expertise. Although the fellowship program broadly defines the history of war on land, it selects winners with a preference for topics on the history of the U.S. Army.[6]
- Publications: The center has over 600 titles in its catalog. It is responsible for writing the official history of the U.S. Army. It is able to facilitate research, provide graphics and editorial support, and carry manuscripts through to publication.[8]
- The center also publishes a quarterly history journal, Army History,[9] known from 1983 to 1988 (No. 1 – No. 12) as The Army Historian.[10] This award-winning magazine currently has a print run of over 10,000 copies and has been in circulation since 1983.[11]
Historical services to the public
CMH's art and documents collections, library, and reference services are available to private researchers.
See also
- Department of Defense Historical Advisory Committee
- Naval History & Heritage Command
- Air Force Historical Research Agency
- United States Marine Corps History Division
- William Hammond (historian)
References
- This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Army Center of Military History.
- ^ a b Sean Kimmons, Army News Service (March 4, 2019) TRADOC to take responsibility for Army Center of Military History
- ^ Historical Program Of The U S Army 1939 To Present, United States Army Center of Military History, Retrieved 6 December 2022
- OCLC 813914147.
CMH Pub 11-9
- ISBN 978-0-521-83365-3.
- ^ Directory of Active Army and National Guard Museums
- ^ a b "CMH Dissertation Fellowships: General Information". www.history.army.mil. Retrieved 12 January 2016.
- ^ Dexter Filkins (4 January 2020). "Inside the U.S. Army's Warehouse Full of Nazi Art". The New Yorker. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
- ^ "U.S. Army Center of Military History Publications Catalog". www.history.army.mil. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
- ^ "Complete Collection of Army History Magazine – U.S Army Center of Military History". history.army.mil. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
- ^ "The Army Historian on JSTOR". JSTOR. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
- ^ "Army History Complete Collection". history.army.mil. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
- ^ a b "Inquiries to CMH". CMH. 1 April 2016. Retrieved 30 September 2016.
Further reading
The following publications provide additional information about the activities, services, and products of the Center of Military History:
- U.S. Army History CMH Online Bookshelves
- History of "History" in the U.S. Army
- Publications of the United States Army Center of Military History
- Army Historical Program(by fiscal year)
- Oral History: Techniques and Procedures
- The U.S. Army Art and Photo Collection
- Army History (a professional bulletin)
- Organizational History
External links
- Official website
- Gough, Terrence J. "The U.S. Army Center of Military History: A Brief History". United States Department of the Army.
- United States Army Center of Military History at the Wayback Machine (archived 7 June 1997)