This story originally appeared in The Centre County Gazette.
Boalsburg is home to the Pennsylvania Military Museum, which houses exhibits featuring different war memorabilia. The history and location of the museum has deep ties to the United States’ armed forces.
The Pennsylvania Military Museum sits on a property once owned by the Boal Mansion. Upon the start of World War I, the property became a training post for American soldiers.
During the war, the property eventually turned from a training post to a military post. After the war, it became a spot for people to gather for reunions, memorials and ceremonies. In 1931, the property was then sold to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, with the goal of designing a museum and historical site.
The museum has been collecting objects since it originally opened in 1969 and has around 10,000 objects in its collection.
“We utilize oral history, written records and artifacts donated,” Tyler Gum, site administrator at the Pennsylvania Military Museum, said when discussing how the museum connects visitors to veterans.
Veterans are able to donate their artifacts to the museum so visitors can see their first-hand experiences. They have uniforms, guns and diaries, among other things donated from veterans. Veterans interested in donating items can fill out a form on the museum’s website.
Ultimately, the museum aims to connect visitors to the veterans and their experiences. The experience at the museum begins before visitors enter the building. Outside of the museum, multiple monuments are set up to honor veterans from all different types of service.
Along with this, the museum has a few major pieces of its permanent exhibits located outside for visitors to view before entering the museum. One part of this exhibit is the “USS Pennsylvania,” which has battleship guns — the biggest pieces that the museum owns.
Four other tanks and an artillery gun can be found outside of the museum
Inside the museum the permanent exhibits allow visitors to immerse themselves in what veterans experienced. The “Trench Warfare” exhibit is modeled after a World War One trench. Visitors can look at the photos on the display and examine the trench.
“We ensure that the memory and legacy of our military personnel and their families is not forgotten,” Gum said.
