The U.S. Coast Guard Museum at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London is scheduled to re-open to the general public Saturday, May 12, following a year-long abatement and renovation project. The museum will re-open its doors from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.
The $297,000 renovation was completed with financial assistance from the Coast Guard Department of Governmental and Public Affairs and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, and features a completely re-designed exhibit — the first in the museum’s history.
The new exhibit provides an overview of the Coast Guard from its origins to the present day, and a smaller temporary gallery features changing exhibits.
The U.S. Coast Guard Museum is the creation of Coast Guard Academy Library Director Paul Johnson, who envisioned a place where objects of Coast Guard history and culture could be gathered for the benefit of cadets and the greater Coast Guard community. The museum was established in 1973 with the construction of Waesche Hall on the campus of the Coast Guard Academy.
Johnson collected artifacts which became the core of the Coast Guard Historic Collection. Now part of the Coast Guard Historian’s Office, the museum holds in trust approximately 6,800 artifacts of the Coast Guard’s cache of 15,457 objects.
Photos of Coast Guard Academy Museum to Reopen
