The Indiana Military Museum is a military museum located in Vincennes, Indiana.
History Background Jim R. Osborne began collecting surplus military equipment as a child after his neighbor gave him a collection of German equipment he had taken as war trophies. In the late 1960s, he started acquiring land vehicles as well.
Establishment At the urging of friends, the Indiana Military Museum was founded by Osborne in 1982 and opened to the public in 1984 on Bruceville Road east of Vincennes. A pair of buildings slated for demolition were moved to the property and were the museum's first buildings. The display space was further expanded in 1988 with the acquisition of a piece of a former Harold's grocery store. The museum completed the restoration of an LVT-4 in 1991. A major change came in the late 1990s, when the museum realized that it needed to focus on finding a new location. A number of objects were loaned to the Casino Aztar in Evansville, Indiana for a temporary exhibit in 2000. Shortly thereafter, the museum closed to undergo renovations supported by a grant from the Lilly Endowment.
Move The museum purchased a site west of Vincennes close to the George Rogers Clark National Historical Park, where it reopened on 31 May 2013. It acquired A4D, F-16 and Lim-5R airplanes in 2015, a T-34 tank the following year and the sail of the submarine the year after that. The museum announced plans to complete a new exhibit hall in 2018. The expansion, reduced to , opened the following year.
Facilities The museum is located on the site of the former Blackford Window Glass Company factory. Plans made at the time of the site's purchase call for the construction of a building. The museum also has a library.
Exhibits Exhibits include a memorial for the that was moved from the Heslar Naval Armory. Inside the museum, there are replicas of a 1940s home, the ruins of a French cathedral and a home front factory.
Collection Aircraft
Beech UC-45J Expeditor Bell UH-1 Iroquois Boeing PT-17 Kaydet Douglas A4D-2 Skyhawk Douglas SC-47D Skytrain General Dynamics F-16A Fighting Falcon Lockheed T-33A Lockheed T-33B McDonnell F-4D Phantom II Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 On Mark Marketeer PZL TS-11 Iskra WSK-Mielec Lim-5R
Ground vehicles
2S1 Gvozdika M4 Sherman M47 Patton Sexton Type 95 Ha-Go light tank
Other
Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel – post-World War II MGM-13B Mace
Events The museum holds a number of events in the spring and summer, including a reenactments of Civil War, World War I, World War II and Vietnam War battles.
See also Motts Military Museum Russell Military Museum
References
Further reading
External links