US Naval War College Museum

I recently had the opportunity it peruse the Museum of the US Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island.  The Museum itself is housed in the original War College Building, which was adequate for the student body in 1884 but new facilities were soon built to accommodate the expanding program.

As the original college building, there is where Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, USN, second War College President (1886-1889) and subsequently a renowned naval historian, first delivered his lectures on sea power—lectures which were first published in 1890 as the epochal The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-1783.

While relatively small, the Museum has some great artefacts, particularly noting that Newport was also the US Navy's torpedo facility and training school.  Here are a couple that caught my eye:

The US Navy Protected Cruiser USS Chicago. 

The USS Stiletto (1885) - wooden torpedo boat used for experimental torpedo development 

US Navy Torpedo Boat No 1: USS Cushing (1890).  The first steel hulled, ocean going TB

USS Cushing

Newport has been key in USN torpedo development

Full size Fish and Howell model torpedoes - nose aspect.  Quite different to the better known Whitehead design

Full size Fish and Howell model torpedoes - stern aspect

And finally, some interesting relics from the War Plan Orange wargaming which was conducted at the US Navy War College.  In fact, all the Rainbow series war plans were developed, gamed and refined here.  It is truly the home of Naval Wargaming in the US.

https://www.usnwc.edu/About/NWC-Museum.aspx

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_War_College_Museum