Begun in 1863, the collection has not had a secure, permanent home until the Governor announced in 2001 that the historic armory in Saratoga Springs, NY would be renovated to house the collection. The museum houses over 10,000 artifacts dating from the Revolutionary War to Desert Storm that relate to New York State’s military forces, the state’s military history and the contributions of New York’s veterans. The museum also owns the largest collection of state battle flags in the country and the largest collection of Civil War flags in the world. The library and archive holdings in the Veterans Research Center include a 2000 volume library of military and New York State history, over 6,000 photographs, unit history files, broadsides, scrapbooks, letters and maps.
Online, users can find information on: New York’s armories, arsenals, military forts, and heraldry; information on the museums collection of nearly 2,000 battle flags; links to sites relating to NYS military history; military history images from 1609-2000; and more!
In this, the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War, it is especially notable that the museum holds the world’s largest collection of Civil War flags and over 2300 Civil War photographs, a collection of Civil War era newspaper clippings arranged by New York units.
Visit the New York State Military Museum and learn more about New York’s rich military history http://dmna.state.ny.us/historic/mil-hist.htm
