Casey's Patch Collection

The National WWII Museum (formerly the D-Day Museum)

Warning: you may see a similar post in the future on this same topic. I actually have two different patches from the D-Day / National WWII Museum in New Orleans. Each was acquired on a separate occasion. 

I acquired this patch several years ago at the D-Day Museum in New Orleans. The D-Day Museum opened in 2000 on the 56th anniversary of D-Day, and in 2003, Congress designated it as America's National WWII Museum. Since then, the museum has expanded its scope and collections to cover not just the D-Day battle, but all the contributions of the United States from its entry into the war through the Allies' victory in Europe and Japan. 

You might be wondering why the National WWII Museum is located in New Orleans, Louisiana. The city is certainly well known for its tourism but not really its significance to 20th century military history. When the museum opened in 2000 as the D-Day Museum, New Orleans was actually a pretty natural fit for its location. I'm sure you have seen the iconic photographs of marines exiting the boats onto the shores of Omaha, Juno, Gold, Sword, and Utah beaches. Those were called "Higgins Boats," named after Andrew Higgins, the New Orleans native who designed, built, and tested the boats at his company, Higgins Industries, during the war. One is on display in the museum's lobby.

My most recent visit to the museum was with my SLISters while on a repository tour. In 2011, about 35 archives and library students from SLIS at LSU took a day-long trip to New Orleans. Our first stop was the Amistad Resesarch Center, followed by the National WWII Museum. At both repositories, the staff gave us behind-the-scenes tours of their repositories and collections. The Oral History Curator at the WWII Museum even took us into his recording studio, where he interviews veterans of the war to add to the museum's oral history collection. It was a great day. We learned so much from the archivists who were willing to spend their Saturday giving us a glimpse into two really amazing archives.

Ok, now that you're done reading this post, check out my post about my trip to Normandy!

Longfellow House / Washington's Headquarters

Pretty soon after I moved to Boston -- well, I actually spent my first few months in Waltham -- I took the commuter rail one day from the Waltham station to Porter Square and got on the Red Line to Harvard Square. It was my first time in Harvard Square, and I was not familiar with the area. I made my way down Brattle Street, and low and behold, I found myself standing in front of the home of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

It was not until after I had taken the tour of the house that I realized its history was significant in other ways as well. It was at this house where George Washington assumed command of the Continental Army, and it served as his headquarters during the Siege of Boston from 1775-1776. During Longfellow's residence at the house, notable visitors included Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, Charles Dickens, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. 

Although he is most well known for his poetry and as a scholar, Longfellow was also an abolitionist and published Poems on Slavery in 1842. While working on the Abolitionist Map of America, the Longfellow House / Washington's Headquarters partnered with us to populate the map with historical materials. You can find a lot of their archival images and documents pinned in the Cambridge, Massachusetts area, or by exploring their collections online. 

Longfellow's birthplace is located in Portland, Maine, and the house is operated by the Maine Historical Society. I have visited the historical society on two occasions but have yet to take a tour of his house.