Collections
The Oregon Military Museum (OMM) houses historically significant and unique collections extensively documenting the role of Oregon’s military and homefront contributions. From pre-statehood to today’s global support, the Museum’s collections highlight Oregon stories from all branches of services.
The artifact collection contains more than 14,500 pieces, bringing tangible context to Oregon’s military heritage. Beyond the uniforms, artwork, insignia, banners, and more are nearly 800 small arms, one of the largest publicly available firearms collections west of the Mississippi River. This world-renown collection explores the evolution of firearms and highlights weapons used by Oregonians, their allies, and enemies.
Housed within the Thomas E. Withycombe Library are primary and secondary source material spanning more than 150 years of Oregon’s military history. Slated to open in tandem with the Museum’s grand opening, the Library will be available for on-site research. In addition to the publications, papers, photos, and audiovisual material available by request, a selection of the collection’s more than 32,000 volumes will be shelved within the Reading Room for visitors to explore.
As the Museum works towards its future grand opening, staff continue to develop and build resources, striving to make all collections accessible in the coming years. Long-term goals for preservation and accessibility include online and in-person resources such as:
- Collections Portal: A searchable database of all catalogued collections where visitors can view images and detailed histories of collections online.
- Media Room: A controlled viewing room where visitors can engage with the moving images, audiovisual, and slide collections.
- Learning Hub: A centralized space online to deep dive into subjects, stories, people, actions, and technologies covered in the collections.
- Youth & School: Find field trip, camp, homeschool, and in-class curriculum and activities, along with youth-centric resources.
- Share Space: A place for online and onsite visitors to share their stories for present and future generations.
While OMM looks to these future goals, staff welcome research inquiries in the interim.
For research questions you can reach us at (971) 355-2275 or [email protected].