My father, Richard H. Hobbs, joined the Washington, D.C. National Guard as a military policeman in 1938, when he was 21. When the 29th Infantry Division (the same National Guard Division in Virginia today) was federalized in February 1941, he was sent to Fort Meade and trained to drive a 2.5 ton GMC truck. In […]
Recently we looked into whether George C. Marshall made any statements regarding the 1918 influenza pandemic. Marshall does note divisions being out of commission here due to illness, but does not offer many opinions or feelings on the matter. What most affected Marshall was in 1917, before his journey overseas. While mobilizing troops, General Bell was […]
Cooking with World War II ration recipes – Main dish Many of us are cooking from what we have in the pantry as we endeavor to keep trips to the grocery and other stores to a minimum. My ingredients are somewhat limited, and it occurred to me that my grandmother faced similar limitations during World […]
With the quick strokes of a pen, seventy-two years ago today, President Harry S. Truman changed the course of world history. On April 3, 1948, at his desk in the Oval Office, he signed into law the Foreign Assistance Act of 1948, which Congress helpfully suggested could also be referred to as the Economic Cooperation […]
One hundred years ago, it became illegal to stop off at the corner bar for a beer – the Volstead Act, commonly called Prohibition, outlawed the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-123257 Commissioner John A. Leach, right, watching agents pour liquor into […]
On December 7, 1941, the USS Oklahoma was moored at Ford Island, in Pearl Harbor. Japanese aircraft dropped numerous torpedoes that caused the ship to explode and capsize during the surprise attack. According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, “when the ensuing chaos subsided enough to allow an accurate headcount of the ship’s personnel, a […]
Guest blog by Cadet Mike Morrison, VMI ’20 and Marshall Foundation social media intern. With the Rat Mass of 19+3’s (freshmen) breakout accomplished on February 2nd, 2019, we look back at Marshall’s own “ratline” in his first year at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) in 1889. Though the ratline was much less structured and regulated […]
On Friday, December 7, 2018, we celebrated the career of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph F. Dunford, Jr., USMC. He received the Andrew J. Goodpaster Award from the Marshall Foundation in recognition of his distinguished career in USMC, his many contributions to U.S defense and his leadership of the military at […]
October is American Archives Month. Since 2006, archivists have spent the month of October introducing or reminding people of the important work that archivists perform to collect, preserve, organize, and make accessible historical records. For those readers who may be unfamiliar with the Marshall Foundation archives, it contains the papers of George C. Marshall and […]
Over the many years that George C. Marshall played an active role in major world affairs, he saw the relationships between the United States and other countries, as well as his personal relationships with many leaders, change dramatically. In the aftermath of World War II former allies such as the Soviet Union and China became […]
The new exhibition at the George C. Marshall Museum, “Hope for Those Who Need It,” was featured in the Travel section of USA Today on April 3 as one of the “Best museum exhibits in the U.S. this spring.” https://usat.ly/2Gub3PZ Mentioned as one of 13 exhibits, “Hope for Those Who Need It,” celebrates the Marshall […]
On April 3rd the Marshall Foundation, in partnership with the United States Diplomacy Center, commemorated the 70th anniversary of the signing of the Marshall Plan into law by President Harry Truman at the Diplomacy Center in Washington, D.C. The Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation provided special support for the event. The first part of the program featured remarks by Dr. […]
Today we celebrate the career of Army Chief of Staff General Mark A. Milley. He will receive the Andrew J. Goodpaster Award from the Marshall Foundation in recognition of his distinguished career in the U.S. Army, his many contributions to U.S defense and his leadership of the U.S. Army at the highest level. General Milley […]
On December 10, 1953, General George C. Marshall received the Nobel Peace Prize in a ceremony in Oslo, Norway. Marshall received the award in recognition of his efforts to restore the economies of Western Europe through the Marshall Plan, which had concluded in 1952. Marshall was the first career military officer to receive this high […]
#GivingTuesday is a global day of giving, which is fueled by the power of social media and collaboration. It is celebrated on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving (in the U.S.) and shopping events Black Friday and Cyber Monday. #GivingTuesday kicks off end of the year charitable giving. The George C. Marshall Foundation will once again be […]
This week’s blog is written by Kara Lough and Julia Udicious from Professor Coddington’s Journalism 201 course at Washington and Lee University. LEXINGTON, VA – The second annual “Chopped” style cook-off, featuring local chefs, will occur on Sunday, Oct. 29, at 2 p.m., at Virginia Military Institute’s Marshall Hall. The theme of this year’s Victory […]
On Monday, June 5th the George C. Marshall Foundation will recognize the 70th anniversary of Secretary of State Marshall’s speech setting forth his vision for European recovery by offering free admission to the Marshall Museum from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Marshall’s remarks on June 5, 1947 at Harvard began the four-year Marshall Plan that […]
This blog was originally published on March 13, 2015. When Massachusetts representative, Edith Nourse Rogers, introduced a bill in May 1941 to establish a Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps for Service with the Army of the United States she set into motion a series of events that transformed the role of women in military service. (HR […]
In Winchester, Virginia this week, the 90th annual Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival is in full swing. The festival that celebrates the arrival of spring and the pink-and-white apple blossoms started in 1924 as a one-day event and, except for the war years 1942-1945, has been held every year since then. It is one of the […]
One of the goals of the Marshall Legacy Series is to create events centered on key themes that are engaging for visitors of all ages. This past month, two such events brought many to the Foundation. On Saturday March 18th, 25 children, along with their family and friends, filled the lobby of the Marshall Museum […]
When General James Mattis was sworn in as secretary of defense on January 20th, he became the second person in history to receive a congressionally approved exemption to serve in this post. The first was General George C. Marshall who served as secretary of defense under President Truman from September 1950 to September 1951. Although […]
What do Pokemon, board games and wizards have to do with George C. Marshall? Come to the monthly Discovery Days at the Marshall Museum to find out. Each month has a new theme that combines Marshall, science, history, art, games and fun into a two hour time slot, one Saturday each month. Join us on […]
Noted World War I scholar Dr. Edward Lengel talked about American military entry into WWI last night to open the Marshall Legacy Series sequence called The World Wars. His talk, “Testing the American Way of War: Doughboys in Combat, 1917-1918,” can be viewed on our YouTube channel. Dr. Lengel discussed the first American military engagements […]
Each year Time magazine publishes a celebratory first issue recognizing a person, movement, or organization that, for better or for worse, has done the most to influence the events of the previous year. Over the past two years we have written blogs about Marshall’s 1948 Man of the Year cover for his work on aiding […]
There’s still time before the end of the year to take advantage of a truly good deal, membership in the Marshall Foundation. Your membership for the next 12 months includes two issues of our magazine, MARSHALL, free admission to the Museum and to most Marshall Legacy Series programs, a 10% discount in the Museum Shop—either […]
This post was originally published on: November 26, 2015 Happy Thanksgiving from the Marshall Foundation! Recent media attention has commended stores for staying closed on Thanksgiving and for promoting time with friends and family. Seventy years ago, economic activity was on the mind of President Franklin Roosevelt. In 1939 he wanted to spur spending and […]
For the past two years, the Marshall Foundation has participated in #VeteransArchives, a Twitter event that shares archival material from veterans as a way to honor their service. This event is happening today on various social media networks. Each hour a new collection will be shared. For those who do not have social media accounts, […]
On October 12th, Bill Spear discussed the early days of the Jeep when the small, distressed American Bantam Car Company in Butler, PA, built a prototype in just 49 days. It caught the Army’s attention. Army Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall told Major Walter Bedell Smith on his staff to have Bantam build […]
On the evening of 8th September the Marshall Foundation was delighted to present its first “Marshall Legacy Series on the Road” event in Washington, DC. This public lecture delivered by retired USMC General John Allen and co-sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers and The Heritage Foundation, which hosted the occasion, was titled “Seizing the Future.” It examined the […]
Ted Ryan, Director of Heritage Communications at Coca-Cola, has managed the historical collections of The Coca-Cola Company since June 1997. He oversees an extensive collection of physical and digital artifacts that showcase the rich history of The Coca-Cola Company. He serves as Project Manager for the program to restore, digitize, and catalog over 25,000 historical […]
During World War II General George C. Marshall faced the challenge of keeping the spirits of his soldiers high despite the fact that they were fighting enemies thousands of miles away from their homes. “Fighting as [a] rule is a very monotonous thing,” Marshall noted, “And it’s the monotony that is very hard to endure, […]
Smithsonian Museum Day Live! on Saturday, September 24, is an annual event that gives participating museums around the country the opportunity to open their doors free of charge. In a perfect world, all museums would be free, but non-profits such as the George C. Marshall Foundation receive no operational funding from the government and must […]
Next Thursday and Saturday, August 4 and 6, we will have a Marshall Legacy Series doubleheader. Dr. Frank Settle will discuss “The Fast and Furious Race for the Atomic Bomb” on Thursday evening. Astronaut Patrick Forrester will talk about his adventures in space travel on Saturday afternoon. These presentations continue the Speed and Fury sequence […]
The Marshall Museum buzzed with activity this past Saturday. Twenty-seven children, along with their family and friends, filled the lobby and library to take part of the second annual LEGO competition sponsored by the Marshall Foundation. At the start of the competition participants received a tour of the temporary museum exhibition “From Machine to Man.” […]
In the fall of 1977 the George C. Marshall Foundation newsletter, Topics, reported that Director, Fred Hadsell, had secured support from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission to undertake a major documentary editing project; the Papers of George Catlett Marshall would complement the magisterial four-volume biography written by Forrest Pogue. The initial project scope […]
Last evening, Dr. John Maass, a historian with the U.S. Army Center of Military History in Washington, D.C. talked about Marshall’s time at Fort Benning during the late 1920s. John R. Maass, Ph.D., received his doctorate in early American history from Ohio State University where he also studied military history and Native American history. A […]
But underlying all…is the realization that the primary instrument of warfare is the fighting man. All of the weapons with which we arm him are merely tools to enable him to carry out his mission. So we progress from the machine to the man… It is true that the war is fought with physical weapons […]
One year ago we began this odyssey known as the Marshall Legacy Series not knowing then where it would take us exactly. Determined to create something of significance, we were dedicated to the concept of exploring aspects of General Marshall’s legacy that would appeal to an audience with broad interests. We proceeded with care to […]
Tomorrow we begin the Marshall Matinee Film Series. You are invited to see one, two or three award-winning, World War II-subject films to be shown in the Pogue Auditorium on consecutive Saturday afternoons. These films have been selected because they support the theme of the current All Who Want to Serve sequence of the Marshall […]
On March 23, 2016, the Marshall Plan Speech was one of 25 recordings added to the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress. Secretary of State George C. Marshall’s remarks at Harvard University were a crucial first step in the United States’ efforts to help rebuild Europe after World War II and certainly represent […]
Ireland and Britain have had a very rocky past for the better part of their shared history. This did not change during World War II. Northern Ireland, as part of the United Kingdom, took up arms in its defense. While many of Ireland’s men crossed the border into Northern Ireland and volunteered to serve with […]
“I have said or pointed out on a number of occasions the tremendous importance of food. Because when hunger and illness invade the home men will accept almost any cure that is proposed at the moment. Anything is better than the existing circumstance and you have the ripest possible field for demagogic, audacious or calculated […]
Tomorrow we will be honored to host Lt. Col. Robert Friend, who is one of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen. It should be a remarkable afternoon. As Army Chief of Staff, General George C. Marshall was directly involved in establishing the military program for aviation at the Tuskegee Institute. Correspondence between Marshall and Frederick D. […]
What do Minecraft, marshmallow catapults, zombies and wizards have to do with George C. Marshall? Come to the monthly Discovery Days at the Marshall Museum to find out. Each month has a new theme that combines Marshall, science, history, art, games and fun into a two hour time slot, one Saturday each month. Join us […]
On Saturday January 9th, the George C. Marshall Foundation together with the Society for Military History (SMH) co-hosted the annual Marshall Lecture at the American Historical Society. Since the late 90s, the Marshall Foundation and SMH have sponsored this event aimed surely at both keeping Marshall’s memory alive and stimulating interest in the study of […]
George C. Marshall believed every American who wanted to serve should have the opportunity. The Marshall Museum’s exhibit “For My Country, For Myself”, takes a look at who some of those Americans were. Exhibit images and historical information have been provided with our Legacy Series partner, the United States Army Women’s Museum. During World War […]
Each year Time magazine publishes a celebratory first issue recognizing a person, movement, or organization that, for better or for worse, has done the most to influence the events of the previous year. In 2015 Time honored Angela Merkel, the first woman Chancellor of Germany. The refugee and migrant crisis of 2015 challenged Europe’s principle […]
Happy New Year from the staff of the Marshall Foundation! 2015 was a wonderful year, full of new events and programming. 2016 is shaping up to be even better! Join us on January 20, 2016 for special presentation “A Debt to Democracy and a Date with Destiny: The Women’s Army Corps and Its Legacy” by […]
Wishing you Peace & Happiness this Holiday Season. From the staff of the George C. Marshall Foundation.
Last night’s behind the scenes event “The Things They Carried Home” offered a rare glimpse at the many artifacts from collections that have never been displayed publicly. The theme focused on items that soldiers carried with them during war and then home. Six stations displayed items they used on the job, religious items, native artwork, […]
Happy Thanksgiving from the Marshall Foundation! Recent media attention has commended stores for staying closed on Thanksgiving and for promoting time with friends and family. Seventy years ago, economic activity was on the mind of President Franklin Roosevelt. In 1939 he wanted to spur spending and moved the Thanksgiving celebration up a week to extend […]
HDT Global got its start in robotics the hard way, by working for the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab on DARPA’s Revolutionizing Prosthetics program to develop a prosthetic arm with near-human capabilities. DARPA projects are often described as “DARPA hard”, and this nine year effort has been one of the toughest projects that HDT has […]
Recently I gave a brief history lesson about Veterans Day to Wesleyan School students, alumni, and family. This is an excerpt of that speech: As most know, Veterans Day grew out of the commemoration Armistice Day, the moment when the fighting of World War I ended. After World War I, President Wilson proclaimed that the […]
October is Family History Month! George Catlett Marshall, Jr. was born on December 31, 1880 in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. He was the fourth child of George C. Marshall, Sr. and Laura Bradford Marshall. (Their third born had died as an infant.) His siblings were Stuart Bradford (b. 1875) and Marie Louise (b.1876). For researchers interested in […]
October is American Archives Month. During this month archivists make a special effort to draw attention to the important work that archivists perform in arranging and preserving records as well as communicate the importance of making these records available to the public. In addition to housing the records of George C. Marshall, the Marshall Foundation […]
Smithsonian Museum Day Live! on Saturday, September 26, is an annual event that gives participating museums around the country the opportunity to open their doors free of charge. In a perfect world, all museums would be free, but non-profits such as the George C. Marshall Foundation receive no operational funding from the government and must […]
Recent headlines include “10th Mountain Division Gets First Female Brigadier,” “Two women graduate from Army Ranger Course,” and “Navy SEALs set to open to women, top admiral says.” What, if anything, does this have to do with George C. Marshall? Marshall’s concern for women in uniform was the impetus behind the federal organization that still […]
Few today doubt the wisdom of the European Recovery Program, known, colloquially of course as the ‘Marshall Plan’ in honor of of the man who conceived of it and even fewer doubt the vastly positive impact it had. From re-building the war-torn economies of western Europe, both friend and foe, and tilling the soil of […]
Never having served in the military, I at first thought it odd when I received an invitation to speak on the “Weapons” of War as part of the George C. Marshall Legacy Series. After it was explained to me that my specific topic would be “Paper Bullets”–editorial cartooning as it relates to conflict and public […]
It’s the beginning of a new era at the Marshall Foundation. In the past decade, the staff at the library and archives has digitized many of the collections housed here in Lexington to perpetuate the legacy of George C. Marshall by offering our resources to the world. Yesterday, for the first time, we broadcast live […]
When Massachusetts representative, Edith Nourse Rogers, introduced a bill in 1941 to establish a Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps for Service with the Army of the United States she set into motion a series of events that transformed the role of women in military service. (HR 4906, 77th Congress, 1st session) Rogers had served in the […]
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before Congress earlier this week illustrates the special relationship that the United States has maintained with Israel. As is to be expected in any relationship lasting 66 years and counting, the United States and Israel have had their fair share of disagreements. Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud Party recently released video […]
In May of 1971, the Marshall Foundation received its own Academy Award. The movie Patton had swept the 43rd Academy Awards, winning seven awards in the categories of original screenplay, direction, sound, editing, art direction, actor, and best picture. George C. Scott famously rejected his best actor Oscar for Patton, stating at the time: “…it is […]
When President Obama announced his nomination of Ashton Carter to replace Chuck Hagel as secretary of defense in December 2014, many news reports anticipated a quick confirmation process. This proved to be accurate, with the Senate easily confirming Carter on February 12 by a vote of 93–5. The same would not be true when President […]
Every now and again there comes a war movie that transcends the genre and speaks to a far wider audience than just “history buffs” or “war movie fans.” These films both tell their story more adeptly but also speak to deeper issues about the nature of our society. All armies are, of course, a reflection […]
The death of two members of the Tuskegee Airmen in mid-January reminded the country of the significant contribution that African Americans made to World War II. As chief of staff of the United States Army, George C. Marshall was directly involved in the establishment of the military program for aviation at the Tuskegee Institute. Correspondence between […]
A December 2014 Congressional Research Service Report (CRS) on the changing international security environment states that world events since late 2013 are creating a shift in the international environment is undergoing a shift from the familiar post-Cold War era of the last 20-25 years to a new and different strategic situation. The features of that environment are […]
Each year Time magazine publishes a celebratory first issue recognizing a person, movement, or organization that, for better or for worse, has done the most to influence the events of the previous year. In January 1948, Time gave the honor of “Man of Year” to George C. Marshall for giving “hope for those who needed […]
Next week the movie Imitation Game will be released. British mathematician, logician and cryptanalyst Alan Turing was a key figure in cracking the code used by Nazi Germany that helped the Allies win World War II. The British-American movie stars Benedict Cumberbatch, as Turing and Keira Knightley, as Joan Clarke, Turing’s fiancé and fellow code […]
The Nobel Prize season has just concluded. As always, the announcement of the winners in five disciplines, Chemistry, Physics, Medicine, Economics and Literature, are eagerly awaited. The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, however, holds special significance. Unlike the other prizes, the Peace Prize is distinctly different because it represents a recognition of something less […]
SIGAR (Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction) may have been throwing up his hands in disbelief when he announced last week the total aid given to Afghanistan since our recent involvement will soon exceed total Marshall Plan assistance following World War II. “SIGAR calculates that by the end of 2014, the United States will have […]