For our anniversary at the end of last year, my husband planned a whole surprise trip to Annapolis. Annapolis is a gorgeous old city full of wonky brick streets, buildings a couple centuries old, and the picturesque waterfront. We stayed at an old inn across from the historic statehouse. Annapolis is also home to the United States Naval Academy from where many of our astronauts have graduated!
Even though it's a gated campus, we were able to go in and walk around. What's neat is that in one of the buildings is the visitor's center, gift shop, and... a museum! It is possibly the smallest museum I've ever been to, but it was no less interesting!
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| A view into the museum which was really just a curved hallway that led from the entrance to the gift shop. |
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This ship model of the USS Maryland was pretty amazing.
There was a lot of metal on this thing! |
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Besides the cool naval uniform on the right, I really liked this wall section that mapped out the
Battle of Flamborough Head, 23 Sept. 1779 |
Despite the museum being small, I was impressed by the different types of exhibit techniques they used. I am a total fan of maps, and the large floor-to-ceiling map of this naval battle above was really cool. I also liked the up close and personal feel of the exhibit below. It's simple and basic, but I think it functions well in their limited space.
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| "Aboard an 18th Century Warship" |
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Food ration. Interesting! I love that they have physical examples of the food stuffs.
It's nice to see when fake food is used in a good way. |
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Warship Foods
The food look so realistic! |
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| Food Rations |
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This picture depicted the history of women in the Navy.
There was a lot of great information here. |
I really liked this part that talked about the WAVES along with the cute WWII poster.
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This talks about how women enlisted in the U.S. Navy even in WWI!
I had no idea! |
About the women who enlisted in the U.S. Navy during WWI it says, "During the war 11,275 Yeomanettes had service as office administration, draftsman, interpreters, couriers, and translators; and another 1,550 women served as Navy nurses. In addition, 307 women served in the Marine Corps, mostly in stateside clerical duties at headquarters and at recruiting stations around the country." How fascinating!
This part about the US Naval Academy Astronauts was pretty cool too. It was interesting to see how many astronauts have graduated from there.
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| U.S. Flag carried aboard Apollo 14, donated by Alan Shepard. |
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Final resting place of John Paul Jones, a famous U.S. Naval hero.
This is located at the large church/cathedral on campus. |
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On campus we found this neat gift by the class of 1968.
It's a self orientating sun dial. It's unique because it can tell you both the time and the day.
I love that the pointer is a missile. It just looks retro cool, but considering it was installed during the Cold War, it's a bit sobering as well... |
I really liked this part that talked about the WAVES along with the cute WWII poster.
