United States Army Center of Military History

The United States Army Center of Military History (CMH) is the Army’s principal organization for researching, interpreting, preserving, and applying the service’s history. As the flagship institution of the Army Historical Program, it supports commanders, educators, soldiers, museums, researchers, and the wider public through official histories, archival collections, oral-history programs, museum administration, professional education, and historical advice. CMH operates under the direction of the Chief of Military History, assisted by the Army’s chief historian and a staff of historians, archivists, curators, editors, artists, and other specialists. Its research program covers both traditional operational and administrative history and subjects such as procurement, peacekeeping, force organization, logistics, military professionalism, and the global war on terror. The center’s work is intended not only to document past events but also to help the Army use historical evidence when teaching strategy, tactics, leadership, administration, and organizational change. A major part of CMH’s responsibility is the production and publication of official United States Army histories. Its catalog contains more than 600 titles, ranging from campaign and unit histories to institutional studies and reference works. The center also publishes Army History, a quarterly professional bulletin that has circulated since 1983 and previously appeared under the title The Army Historian. Through publications, reading lists, research assistance, and support for the Army school system and Reserve Officer Training Corps, CMH connects historical scholarship with military education. The center maintains organizational histories for units of the Regular Army, Army National Guard, and Army Reserve. It issues lineage and honors certificates, helps determine official unit designations, and works with Army staff during reorganizations to preserve historically significant names, lineages, properties, and artifacts. CMH also administers the Army’s Command History Program, which provides historical support to commands around the world. Since the first Persian Gulf War, it has coordinated the deployment of military history detachments and the collection of historical records during operations and peacekeeping missions, including activities connected with Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, and northern Iraq. CMH is also a major museum and material-culture organization. It manages an Army-wide system of more than 120 museums and their holdings, comprising approximately 450,000 artifacts and 15,000 works of military art according to the referenced description. The center provides museum training, professional assistance visits, curatorial support, conservation and collections guidance, and combat-art support. Its collections include significant World War II and postwar material, including Nazi art and ephemera gathered during denazification efforts. The center also supports the National Museum of the United States Army at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and works in the broader Army heritage network that includes the Army Heritage and Education Center at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. CMH’s educational activities include staff rides, in which military leaders study battlefields and operations in the terrain where they occurred. Center historians support staff rides for senior Army leaders and use them to connect historical evidence with recurring principles of military operations. The organization also holds a biennial history conference and workshop, sponsors dissertation fellowships for graduate students, maintains reference and research services, and makes many collections available to qualified private researchers. Its role is therefore broader than that of a conventional archive or museum: it is simultaneously a government historical office, publishing institution, professional-education provider, collections administrator, and operational-history support organization.

The Center of Military History is the institutional hub of the United States Army’s historical program. Its responsibilities developed from the Army’s long-standing need to record campaigns, preserve organizational memory, maintain artifacts, and use historical study in the education of officers and soldiers. Rather than treating history solely as retrospective scholarship, the center frames it as an operational and professional resource for the Army. Under the Chief of Military History and the Army’s chief historian, CMH conducts a broad research program covering operations, administration, procurement, peacekeeping, force structure, logistics, and contemporary conflicts. Its historians prepare official studies and annual departmental histories, while its archival and oral-history activities preserve firsthand accounts and institutional records. The center’s oral-history holdings include material from the Vietnam War, Desert Storm, and more recent contingency operations. End-of-tour interviews with senior Army Secretariat and Army Staff officials also contribute to histories of the Department of the Army. CMH has an important role in maintaining the identity and continuity of Army organizations. It records unit lineages and honors, prepares certificates documenting that history, advises on official designations, and works with Army planners during reorganizations. These duties help preserve historically important unit relationships even as the Army changes its force structure. The Command History Program extends similar support to Army organizations worldwide, while military history detachments collect documentation during war, peacekeeping, and contingency operations. The center’s museum responsibilities encompass a large network of Army museums and collections. It provides professional training, curatorial assistance, staff visits, and support for the preservation and interpretation of artifacts and military art. The Army Art Collection and related holdings provide visual records of military service, including work created by combat artists. CMH also administers or supports major heritage initiatives, including the National Museum of the United States Army at Fort Belvoir and the Army Heritage and Education Center at Carlisle Barracks. Education remains central to the center’s mission. CMH produces readings for Army schools and the ROTC community, supports staff rides, publishes Army History, convenes a biennial history conference and workshop, and sponsors dissertation fellowships. Staff rides allow leaders to examine battlefields directly and relate terrain, decisions, and outcomes to enduring military principles. A historical advisory committee brings together academic historians and representatives of the Army education system to strengthen the connection between scholarship and professional military learning. The center also serves researchers outside the Army. Its library, document and art collections, reference services, and many museum holdings are available to private researchers subject to operational priorities and security requirements. Its historians, archivists, and curators provide guidance on sources and military-history research, while temporary loans of Army artwork may be arranged for qualifying public exhibitions. The organization’s public-facing work gives the Army a formal mechanism for preserving institutional memory and making selected parts of that memory accessible to scholars and the public. The referenced account describes the center as part of the Army’s training and transformation structure and identifies it as responsible for the National Museum of the United States Army. It does not establish a single founding year, founder, current leadership roster, or commercial ownership structure. CMH should therefore be understood as an active United States government historical institution rather than a commercial brand.

• 2016

  Research-access procedures documented for the Fort Lesley J. McNair facility

  [1]United States Army Center of Military Historyen.wikipedia.org

  The referenced description notes that, as of 2016, researchers seeking appointments at the secured Fort Lesley J. McNair facility generally needed to request access at least one week in advance.

• 1990

  Expanded operational-history support after the Persian Gulf War

  [1]United States Army Center of Military Historyen.wikipedia.org

  Following the first Persian Gulf War, CMH coordinated the deployment of military history detachments and the collection of historical information during subsequent overseas operations and peacekeeping missions.

• 1983

  Army history journal begins circulation

  [1]United States Army Center of Military Historyen.wikipedia.org

  The publication that became Army History began circulation in 1983 under the earlier title The Army Historian.

The authoritative historical, archival, museum, and military-education institution of the United States Army.

• Historical publications

  Official United States Army histories

  CMH researches, edits, and publishes official histories of Army operations, campaigns, organizations, administration, procurement, and other subjects. The catalog contains more than 600 titles and is intended for commanders, educators, researchers, and the public.

• Professional journal · 1983

  Army History

  Army History is a quarterly publication for the military-history and professional-education community. It has been published since 1983 and was known from 1983 through 1988 as The Army Historian.

• Unit historical documentation

  Lineage and honors certificates

  The center documents the organizational histories of Regular Army, Army National Guard, and Army Reserve units and provides certificates recording their lineage and honors. It also advises on official unit designations and historical continuity during reorganizations.

• Museum and collections services

  Army museum and art program

  CMH manages or supports an Army-wide network of more than 120 museums and collections, offering museum training, curatorial assistance, staff visits, artifact support, and access to military art holdings.

• Operational historical support

  Command History Program

  The Command History Program provides historical guidance and documentation support to Army commands worldwide. Military history detachments collect records and other evidence during wartime, peacekeeping, and contingency operations.

1. 1United States Army Center of Military Historyen.wikipedia.org
2. 2United States Army Center of Military History official websitehistory.army.mil