"Treasures of the National Army Museum" Topic

The NAM in London is one of the finest collections of military items in the UK and holds things that you rarely see anywhere else.

The collection spans the breadth of British military history from the roots of the early army in the English Civil War right through to modern times.

If you would like to know more then just follow the link to JJ's

link

Jonathan (JJ)

Wow !

Rarely see them there either – mostly kept in store…

They have a great collection, but the new design and theming is an awful mish mash of ideas. Perhaps okay for a very general audience but very disappointing for a military historian. I loved the old museum and was bitterly disappointed with the new version.

Still, encouraging to see you found so much on display that was worth recording- despite the struggle with the lighting.

One small point, if the NAM has captioned the 15th Light Dragoons helmet belonging to Captain Ainslie as being worn at Emsdorf, someone has blundered. Instead, it commemorates that epic action.

The motif on the frontal plate records 'FIVE BATTALIONS OF FRENCH DEFEATED AND TAKEN BY THIS REGIMENT WITH THEIR COLOURS AND NINE PIECES OF CANNON AT EMSDORF, 16TH JULY, 1760.' The helmet was adopted in about 1763 by officers of the regiment after they returned to Britain and subsequently authorised in 1768.

Thank you for sharing your photos with us.

Rick

TacticalPainter01
I loved the old museum and was bitterly disappointed with the new version.

+1

Posted this twice before.

Here's my response after visiting on May 23rd 2017:

"Well, I can tell you that for all the £23.75 GBP GBPm ($30m) in redevelopment spent on it, the N.A.M has taken a turn for the worse. As I feared, P.C, Pop and TV culture has taken centre stage, very few exhibits on show and you can walk around the entire museum in twenty minutes.

The museum shop has very little to offer (Though I brought a copy of Nigel Sale's 'The Lie at the Heart of the Battle of Waterloo)

There are exhibits which are not labeled or not informative enough, for instance, the grand portrait of the Marquis of Granby is devoid of any accompanying information, and for anyone to find out who the picture is of, one has to look to a display case to it's right where they will see a porcelain figure of the same person with his name. The Napoleonic uniforms and relics number about a couple of dozen and even here they label William Polhill's dress jacket worn at the battle without stating what regiment he belonged to. As for the rest of the relics before 1700, there are very few.

But what makes this revamp doubly disappointing as far as I'm concerned, is that the Time Machine exhibits are no longer on display. These were the full-life Gerry Embleton figures which were both fantastic and so lifelike. Here is a link to the work that they do. time-machine.ch What a loss they are! The Corunna vignette of a wife struggling through the snow bent double with her husband on her back. The heavy dragoon K.G.L in his long foul-weather, oil-cloth lined coat and covered bi-corn. The 95th Rifleman taking aim from behind a tree trunk. (now housed in the R.G.J museum in Winchester) The recruiting sergeant in his finery, rosettes and streamers in his shako and a cane in the hand of his outstretched arm. And an excellent depiction of a WWI Tommy…

The Museum has missed a trick with the Siborne Waterloo battlefield diorama model too. OK, It's in as good a condition as it has ever been but why oh why did they not display it in a manner where it could be walked completely around instead of being shoved in a corner as they have decided to do here.

If anyone is planning a visit, (I used to recommend it to anyone visiting but I can't any longer) I hope you enjoy the couple of dozen neon pub-sign type displays on one of the walls, the huge, empty entrance and reception area (and boy do I mean Huge). Oh! I asked for a Museum brochure and was politely told that they hadn't got one at the moment due to problems with the publishers

I thought that when I got there I would be pleasantly surprised; I was surprised but the pleasant part was non-existent, in fact, I was disgusted.

So If you happen to be caught out in the rain in passing the Museum, you should have a look around, if the weather is anything else…..Walk on by.

I used to love this Museum, I can't now!

I give it 1/5"

Paul :(

We did indeed discuss this before and let me just repeat that an overwhelming impression is of vast empty space. The café almost takes up one floor and the impression is that everything is now "Hands on", "Experience what it was like", society and the soldier. It is very much aimed at kids school parties en masse, which is perfectly reasonable.

My wife thought it a huge improvement. I was very disappointed. The loss of those figures is crazy. Sgt Ewart, the Rifleman, but does anyone remember the Zulu? I swear his eyes followed you.

Your pictures are great. I did not recall that they had the flag as well as the eagle. I thought only Ewart's Eagle had such. Nice to see again confirmed that the 1815 eagle indeed had a cravat, as asked very recently. This one is in much better preservation than Edinburgh's

Like so many UK museums built or refurbished in the past 10 years, it's been aimed at an audience that doesn't go to museums unless they are forced to by their school (or it's dad's custody weekend). The NAM used to be a wonderful place to visit, particularly after "The Road To Waterloo" gallery was opened. It's dreadful now. Last week I was at loose end for a half day in the Aldershot area and went to the RAMC and RLC Museums (the latter is about to be demolished to make way for about 10,000 new houses on the ex-Deepcut estate). Traditional museums designed to be visited by adults – excellent.

All museums began the downward spiral about 30 years ago when it become more about the architecture of the buildings, political correctness, and a concepts of "artistic display" instead of history and education.

Regards
Russ Dunaway

The only good thing about the NEW National Army Museum was free admission and that was exactly what it was worth. In past visits to London I had spent at least half a day in the NAM and usually bough a hundred pounds worth of books prints cards etc.This time I was out in less than an hour and spent nothing in the shop.

There are a few treasures left spread throughout the exhibits which is like visiting the ruins of an ancient city showing only traces of what was once there but now lost.

I had meant to use the phrase "Dumbed Down". ……I am sure Commercial factors, plus political correctness, "inclusiveness"……Oh, I think I should go and lie down again until this passes. Check out the tiny Horse Guards cavalry Museum sometime. No one ever mentions the Guards Museum either. Both great.

The Warwickshire Regiment museum in Warwick used to be one of those wonderful old-fashioned museums with cabinets full of artefacts; it was possible to spend hours going round it. A few years ago they received Heritage Lottery funding to refurbish it and it was totally dumbed down, just like the NAM. Now there's barely enough material to make a half hour visit worthwhile. There were one or two "interactive computer games", both broken, I remember, on that last sad visit. When I spoke to the then curator (an ex-army major) to say how disappointed I was with the lack of material on display, I was told it was necessary to "modernise" the museum to appeal to children and basically fuddy-duddy adult enthusiasts were of no interest to the museum. I've not been back since.

The trouble with the old museums was that they were like, y'know, museums.

The trouble with old museums was that they appealed to individuals who inhabit the same era as the artefacts the museums displayed.

The trouble with old museums is that they appeal to people who have a brain – not a meaningful consideration these days.

The museum has been designed to appeal to its intended audience, that audience is not military historians or experts, it's clearly designed for a broad, general audience and school groups and in that sense it probably succeeds. I miss the old museum because it was designed for people like me but that is too narrow an audience for a publicly funded cultural institution. If you are spending tax payers money then there is strong pressure to appeal to the largest number of taxpayers to justify use of their money. It's not unreasonable and something all publicly funded institutions have to deal with.

Thank you TP01.

A far more measured response than mine, I've made those points on TMP before and just got bored going over it again this time round.

TP01 got it in one. I actually quite like NAM, never visited before the revamp so can't comment. I do think the Siborne model is badly displayed, would be much better if you could walk all the way around it. The Leeds Royal Armouries Siborne model is much better displayed. My only bugbear is the lighting/display cabinet glass issue – really difficult to take photographs. But not an issue solely relevant to NAM, RA Leeds is even worse.

If you want 'old skool' displays you need to visit The Wallace Collection link

The café has the best sausage rolls in London.

Oh yeah! Wallace Collection, good call! They have probably made it to 1960 by now though.

I see no reason why a modern museum has to skimp on exhibits. If you don't want to spend time with each collection of artifacts, walk on by, for Pete's sake!