Chris Browne

3 November 2015
USS Nautilus Submarine Force Museum

The USS Nautilus Submarine Force Museum is a US Navy owned and operated museum

located in Groton, CT. The museum is focused around the USS Nautilus the first nuclear powered

submarine and the history of the submarines life during the Cold War and the overall history of

submarines in the United States, reaching as far back to the Turtle in 1776. The museum was first

created in 1955 as the Submarine Library by the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics

Corporation. In 1964 the ownership of the library was handed over to the Navy and in 1986 the

library was expanded as new museum for the retried Nautilus. The site was expanded beyond a

welcoming center to a large museum space to include the history of the US submarine force. The

site is owned and maintained by the Naval History and Heritage Command, a subsection of the

US Navy, with the director of the museum being a Naval Officer. Besides the Navy personnel on

site, the rest of the staff is made up of paid civilian workers, with the curator, head of education,

and the archivists falling into those position to the public and volunteers. The website for the

museum is not controlled by the museum, rather by a sister civilian group, the Submarine Force

Library and Museum Association.

In the terms of the resources for teachers and students, the museum has a large archive of

primary artifacts and documents that are open to the public with appointment. School groups

visiting have a number of different approaches to utilize the site, with guided tours of the

museum and the Nautilus being the standard school tour. Beyond the tour, the museum offers

classroom sessions with a STEM focus so that students can look at the history in the context of

the sciences, with the head of education citing that students have had classes on the history of
propulsion and naval navigation and even the building of SeaPerch underwater ROV by the

students. In terms of online resources, the museum is found lacking with the lack of an accessible

online database archive. The best that is offered is an online card catalog of sorts, which

showcases the items available in the library but requires manually going to the site to have access

to them.

The site, being owned by the Navy, focuses heavily on the achievements of the US

Navys submarine force with the museums main narrative being that of the history of

submarines in the US Navy and the history of the USS Nautilus. This narrative is told by the

perspective of the men who served upon the submarines from the first attempts of using a

submarine with a recreation of David Bushnells Turtle to the modern Ohio and Virginia class

submarines. The museum uses its limited space to tell the story of submarines chronologically,

with the evolution from the example of the Turtle to the widespread use of military submarines in

the first years of the 1900s. This perspective is limited to that largely of white male sailors

because of the racial policies of the Navy and the racial makeup of the ships, but it does include

accounts of African American submariners. Interestingly enough, there is an entire display

dedicated to the actions and early victories of the German U-Boat fleet during World War II

which gives the perspective of Americas opponent during the war. The site memorializes the

past in remembrance for the actions committed by the sailors of the submarine force. The

museum has an entire room that is dedicated as a memorial for several sailors who won the

Congressional Medal of Honor, which details their actions that warranted them the award. In

terms of interpretation and preservation, the museum renovated the Nautilus a decade ago,

altering the interior from its historically correct layout to a much more visitor friendly tour that

has visitors pass through a number of different compartments of the ship that have been set up to
show what life was like on the Nautilus in the 1960s. The museum also showcases a number of

maps detailing the Cold War world and a decommissioned Polaris missile tells the story of the

Navys ability to protect American interests during the Cold War through nuclear deterrence with

submarine missile boats carrying a nuclear payload.

I feel that teachers could and should make great use of the museum. Entry to the museum

is free making it easy for teachers to bring everyone. The museum staff is easy to talk to and

willing to work with the teacher to develop a lesson for the days trip. There is a number of

different ways to explore the site as a classroom, whether it is the simple tour of the museum and

the submarine or a sit-down on site classroom lesson by museum staff to tie in whatever the goal

for the trip in with the museums content. The museum deals with a lot of local history and

deeply tuned with the community making it a good site for local schools to visit to bring to life

the history of Connecticut. Despite my glowing review of the site, there are some downsides.

The submarine is very cramped and inaccessible to students or teachers that are in a wheel chair,

meaning they would miss that aspect of the tour. The perspective of the museum is very focused

on the exploits of the sailors of the submarine force which was all but entirely white men. While

there are artifacts from African American sailors, any commentary on race or gender in the Navy

is not there. Despite this, the USS Nautilus Submarine Force Museum is an amazing asset to

students and teachers and provides an interesting look at the Navys role in the world and how

Connecticut help shape that role.

 Museum Assignment

Social Studies Methods

Chris Browne

USS Nautilus Submarine Force Museum

23 October 2015

Eury Cantillo, Head of Education and Volunteers

 This photo represents what I
learned from visiting the USS
Nautilus Submarine Force
Museum. The museums retelling
of history starts with the pictured
Turtle, the first attempt at
submarining by Connecticut born
Patriot David Bushnell. There is a
large display detailing the Turtles
attack on the HMS Eagle and that
this was one of three attacks that
the miniature submarine would
attempt during the American
Revolution.

This image follows my historical understanding of one of the narratives that the
Museum tells. As stated in my report, the Museum includes a narrative of the
Cold War operations of submarines and how the Navy kept American interests
safe by employing a large number of submarines with nuclear capabilities. This
map was one of the maps to showcase how the Navy had a nuclear reach
depending on where the boats were stationed.
This photo is representative of the opportunities that the museum has for
visiting teachers and students. This is the conn tower of the USS
Nautilus, which is docked alongside of the museum. The interior is open
to the public and showcases the living and working conditions of
nuclear submarines and explains how they have changed since the
Nautilus first went to sea and how they have not.

This photo is representative of the historical understanding that the

museum offers with this being one of two cut away dissections of
submarines. This one is of the Nautilus and features light up displays to
track the location of rooms through the ship. This is featured at the
entrance of the museum as to showcase what to expect from the tour of
the submarine