U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

About the US Army Corps of Engineers

In 1980 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Office of History began collecting historic material for a planned public museum. This effort was accelerated in 1986 when the U.S. Army downsized and eventually closed the preexisting Fort Belvoir Engineer Museum in preparation for the Engineer School’s move to Fort Leonard Wood in 1988. The artifact collection of that museum was divided between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers museum activity and what is now the U.S. Army Engineer Museum at Fort Leonard Wood.

While a public U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Museum was not created, the Office of History has maintained its artifact collection related to battlefield engineering through World War II, USACE headquarters and the commands, and the non-combat history of Army Engineers in areas such as Civil Works, Disaster Response, Navigation and Water Resources, and Research and Development. The USACE Historical Collection is an element of the Headquarters, USACE Office of History, and is supported by the Staff Historians and Archivist and the research collection they maintain. Three-dimensional artifacts in the museum collection that are associated with an individual are often accompanied by a personal papers collection in the research collection. The collection is used for research and study, internal exhibits and displays at USACE Headquarters, and in online exhibits.