US Naval War College Museum: Wargaming Exhibits

[rustic313]

he US Naval War College (NWC) has a great Museum in Newport, RI.  The NWC was a pretty early adopter of professional wargaming in the US and has been one of the more active institutions in using it as a tool.  The exhibit has a bunch of neat war gaming info and artifacts.  For those unable to take the trip there I snapped some photos.
Link:  usnwc.edu/NWC-Museum



WW1 and Admiral Sims
Sims was the commandant of the NWC both before and after WW1.  He was a big proponent of wargaming.





Sims and McCarty-Little
McCarty-Little was a Marine officer who ended up being really key to the wargaming faculty after the war.  He got his start in Adm Sim's "red cell" in WW1.





All Types of Games
In addition to wargaming, Sims used baseball to build Anglo-American cooperation and share American culture.



Post War at the NWC
After the war Sims comes back to lead the NWC again.   He assembles a team that will train up the WW2 generation.

[rustic313]

And now for a game!
These are some photos of an undated game from between WW1 and WW2.  Note the polyhedral dice (d20s).  Apparently the military could source them prior to the 1940s!

[rustic313]

Nimitz
Note the quote about wargaming's value in the first paragraph.



A few misc signs.

[chicagowiz]

Neat! Thank you for sharing these.

[rustic313]

They also had a slideshow with some historical images.  Reproduced below (missing a few slides but got most of them).  The game room in slide #9 looks pretty nice. 

[delta]

Wowzers!