Springfield Armory National Historic Site
From 1798 through 1968 the Springfield Armory built the high quality small arms America’s soldiers carried to war. While he was still an Army general, George Washington proposed the Armory’s construction in Springfield, Massachusetts. For nearly two centuries thereafter, the Springfield Armory supplied weapons to our nation’s military. Soldiers have carried Springfield rifles into battle in every major US military engagement including the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Plains Indian Wars, Spanish American War, World War I, Korea, World War II and Vietnam. A few Springfield-built rifles are still in service, today.
The Armory manufactured some of history’s most famous military weapons, including the renowned 1903 Springfield, which America’s “Doughboys” fired from the trenches of Europe in World War I. The famous M-1 Garand is also a product of the Springfield Armory assembly lines. Our GIs carried it into battle in both the Pacific and European theaters in World War II. The M-1 is almost universally considered the most important small arm developed in the history of warfare. General George Patton took it even one step further, calling the M-1 Garand, “the greatest battle implement ever devised!”
The Armory also built other important rifles to aid in our nation’s defense:
- U.S. Flintlock Musket Model 1795
- U.S. Percussion Musket Model 1842
- U.S. Rifle-Musket Model 1855
- U.S. Rifle Model 1866-Allin Conversion (the “Trapdoor" rifle)
- U.S. Magazine Rifle Model 1892 Krag-Jorgensen
- U.S. Magazine Rifle Model 1903 (the “03 Springfield”)
- U.S. Rifle Cal .30 M1 Garand, 1936
- U.S. Rifle, 7.62 mm, M14, 1957.
Over time, the shops and assembly lines at Springfield fell silent and the Armory closed its doors for the final time in 1968. It was the end of a long and successful manufacturing era and the final chapter in the Armory’s distinguished history as a supplier of military weapons.
In 1978 the National Park Service reopened the main Arsenal building as the Springfield Armory National Historic Site.
A centerpiece of the Museum is the "Organ of Muskets", a huge, handsome firearms storage case made famous, ironically, in an anti-war poem. The poem, "The Arsenal at Springfield", is by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. For a small fee, visitors can walk through the Armory’s remarkable second floor gunroom, a collection of 6000 firearms from M-1s to muskets, built at the Springfield Armory. Visitors can also take self-guided tours, or attend special events like military band concerts and Civil War reenactments staged on the Armory’s lawn.
The United States Army founded the Park Museum in 1871 and it is now one of the oldest museums in continuous operation anywhere in the United States. The Springfield Armory Museum gives visitors a glimpse of the largest collection of American military firearms in the world – 8000 rifles in all – and introduces them to the many remarkable manufacturing innovations the Armory developed to help pave the way for America’s Industrial Revolution.
