In 1994, the Wright Museum of World War II opened in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, a creation of its visionary founder the late David Wright.
The Museum accomplishes its mission through careful preservation and thoughtful display of its extensive permanent collection of 1939 – 1945 items; thereby building a reputation as a national repository for historically significant WWII items and memorabilia. Unique to traditional WWII museums, the over 14,000 items in our collection are representative of both the home front and the battle field.
These irreplaceable items, together with fully operational military vehicles, introduce visitors to a seminal period in American history. Just as importantly, the Museum places the period into historical context by illustrating the enduring legacy of Americans known today as, “the greatest generation.”
For example, recent special exhibitions have included WW1 America; WASP: The Untold Story, D-Day photographs; Anne Frank: A History for Today; WWII Quilts; the Associated Press exhibit Memories of World War II; the Smithsonian Institution’s Righting a Wrong: Japanese Americans and WWII; Norman Rockwell in the 1940s: A View of the American Home Front; theAssociated Press exhibit Vietnam: The Real War ; Korea: The Forgotten War ; and the Wright Museum-curated show Private Charles J. Miller: WWII Paintings of the South Pacific.
Since 2009, the Wright Museum’s Arnold and Carol Haynes Research Library has been available to students and researchers year-round by advance arrangement. The museum’s staff is flexible and will strive to accommodate patrons’ schedules – whether they be middle schoolers accompanied by an adult, post-doctoral researchers, or any history buff wanting to learn more about WWII history.
Some of the materials available in the main reading room include
WWII unit histories, Eyewitness accounts, scholarly monographs written by academic historians, WWII-era home front magazines, including a full set of LIFE from 1939-1945, and WWII publications from the front lines, such as Stars and Stripes.