View of Hampton Roads Naval Museum’s newest exhibit: “The Ten Thousand-Day War at Sea: The U.S. Navy in Vietnam, 1950-1975”. The new exhibit adds 130 new artifacts as well as 40 oral histories from local U.S. Navy Vietnam veterans

Visitors walking towards battleship Wisconsin spent the 2019 summer passing the closed gallery of the Hampton Roads Naval Museum. Glass doors that once welcomed visitors into 240-plus years of naval history in the Hampton Roads area, were covered over with brown craft paper.

Behind the glass, staff members, contractors, and volunteers were hard at work. The remaining artifacts in the museum’s World War II and Cold War galleries were removed and carefully stored. Contractors transformed a once quiet and serene gallery into a construction zone. Once the tear down was complete, new framing and electrical wiring went up, contractors installed new drywall, dramatically transforming half of the museum’s gallery.

Curator of Ship Models staff members add the finishing touches to USS Newport News (CA-148) after transporting it from the National Museum of the United States Navy in Washington, D.C. to the Hampton Roads Naval Museum in Norfolk, Virginia on September 24, 2019

During this time, artifacts both large and small arrived, along with printed graphics and text panels. Staff members installed wooden frames, plywood panels, and display cases. With fresh coats of paint applied, staff members and volunteers worked tirelessly to install artifacts, text rails, graphics panels, lighting fixtures, touchscreen monitors, and overhead projectors. Finishing touches continued right up to the exhibit’s opening.

On October 9, 2019, the gallery of the Hampton Roads Naval Museum opened to the public. Many who have visited before will recognize the familiar displays depicting the Revolutionary War through the Civil War.

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