United States Naval War College Museum is located at:

686 Cushing Road
Newport, RI 02841
Voice: 401-841-4052/1317
Website: www.visitri.com/navy.html

The History of the "art and science" of naval warfare, chiefly as studied at the Naval War College through the years, is the principal theme of the Naval War College Museum. In its broadest application, this encompasses theories and concepts of sea power, international and maritime law, foreign policy formulation, diplomacy, and naval operations. More specifically, the focus is naval power and professional implementation for the achievement of strategic and tactical objectives.

Exhibits seek to explain the importance of the sea as a factor in the formulation of national policy objectives and as the arena wherein decisions are made through diplomacy and trial by arms. Examples of command performance in the planning and the execution of projects and campaigns are drawn from world history and from the conceptual and analytical studies produced at the Naval War College.

Besides permanent exhibits on the history of naval warfare and the naval heritage of the Narragansett Bay region, the museum routinely features special exhibits on naval and related topics of current interest to the College community and to the general public. These presentations are generally of three to six months duration and are widely publicized in the media. The museum collection is available for research to the serious scholar and to the specialist.

The Naval Torpedo Station and the evolution of the torpedo in America is treated in an exhibit located in the west gallery of the first floor. The exhibit begins with the establishment of the Station on Goat Island, Newport, in 1869 and continues to the present with a look at the successor command, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center. Feature items are the Fish, the first propeller-driven torpedo in America, 1871, the Howell, the first torpedo used on Navy ships in the 1890's, and the Mark 14, the principal U.S. submarine torpedo of World War II.

The story of the founding in 1884 and the subsequent development of the Naval War College, the senior professional school in the Navy, on Coaster Harbor Island, Newport, RI, is exhibited in the center section of the second floor of the museum. The exhibit is largely pictorial and relates to leaders, facilities, distinguished graduates and war gaming, the school's unique study method. The exhibit includes a 12 minute video presentation on the history of the College, and a segment devoted to Alfred Thayer Mahan, its most distinguished educator and renowned historian of sea power.