American Heritage Museum
The American Heritage Museum is a military history museum located on the grounds of the Collings Foundation in the town of Stow, Massachusetts, west of Boston. The collection consists of over 100 artifacts, most of which were formerly part of the Military Vehicle Technology Foundation collection in Portola Valley, California. Over half of the items on display are from the World War II era, with World War I, the Korean War, Vietnam War, Gulf War, Iraq War, and the War on Terror are also represented. Most of the items on display are American, German, Russian, or British in origin.
History
Beginning in the early 1980s and continuing for the next 20 years, Jacques Littlefield, a Stanford University graduate and former Hewlett Packard engineer, amassed a $30 million collection of military vehicles and engaged in a program of restoring many of them and giving educational tours to the public. By the time of Littlefield's premature death in 2009, his collection had expanded to over 240 vehicles. In accordance with his objective of preserving the collection for the future, the Foundation donated its collection to the Collings Foundation, a non-profit educational institution founded in 1979 with a mission dedicated to the preservation and public display of transportation-related history. The Collings Foundation then auctioned off 120 of the vehicles, netting $9.5 million to fund creation of a new museum to display the remaining 80 items in the collection at the Collings Foundation headquarters in the Boston area.Meanwhile, in August 2015, the Planning Board of the Town of Stow initially rejected the Foundation's application to build the museum, questioning the propriety of locating such a large facility on land that was zoned for residential use. In its defense, the Foundation cited Massachusetts' Dover Amendment, which the Foundation believed would exempt the museum from zoning restrictions, on the grounds that its purpose would be primarily educational in nature. Ultimately, an agreement was reached between the two parties in July 2017, and construction of the museum was completed in 2018. The museum held a preview opening in October 2018 and had its grand opening in May 2019.
Exhibits
Visitors are encouraged to begin their tour with the viewing of a brief introductory film, followed by the immersive walk-through of the "WWI Trench Experience" room containing a recreation of Western Front trenches at the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, the first and only offensive launched solely by the United States Army in World War I. Visitors next enter the "War Clouds" room, which covers the Interwar period and the rise of Nazi Germany. They then exit to the main cavernous display room of the museum, in which artifacts are arranged roughly chronologically and grouped under major campaigns and theaters of war.Some of the major artifacts currently on display are as follows:
| Artifact | Type | Country of origin | Campaign/theater | Notes |
| Ford Model T | ambulance | WWI Trench Experience | ||
| M1917 | light tank | WWI Trench Experience | ||
| Panzer I. A | tank | War Clouds | ||
| Vickers Mk. IV | light tank | War Clouds | The only one on public display in the U.S. | |
| Mercedes G4 | staff car | War Clouds | ||
| M4A1 Sherman | tank | Arsenal of Democracy | ||
| Sherman | turret trainer | Arsenal of Democracy | ||
| M3 Lee | medium tank | North Africa | ||
| Matilda MK.II | tank | North Africa | The only one on public display in North America | |
| Sd.Kfz. 10 1-Ton | personnel carrier/prime mover | North Africa | The only one on public display in the U.S. | |
| Leichter Panzerspähwagen Sd.Kfz. 222 | armored scout car | North Africa | One of only two intact SdKfz 222 in the world and the only one on public display in North America | |
| 7.5 cm Pak 40 | anti-tank gun | North Africa | The only one on public display in the U.S. | |
| M3A1 | scout car | Italian Campaign | ||
| M5A1 Stuart VI | light tank | Italian Campaign | ||
| VW Kübelwagen Type 82 | reconnaissance car | Italian Campaign | ||
| VW Schwimmwagen Type 166 | amphibious personnel carrier | Italian Campaign | ||
| T-34/76 | tank | Eastern Front | The only one on public display in North America | |
| Sd.Kfz. 251/1 Ausf. D | half-track armored personnel carrier | Eastern Front | One of only two on display in the U.S. | |
| Sd.Kfz. 2 Kleines Kettenkrad | half-track personnel carrier | Eastern Front | ||
| Sturmgeschütz III Ausf. G | tank destroyer | Eastern Front | The only running StuG IIIin North America, with $1M of restoration work | |
| Borgward IV | demolition vehicle | Eastern Front | One of only four in the world, and the only one on display in North America | |
| T-34/85 | tank | Clash of Steel | The only one on display in North America | |
| Panzer V "Panther" Ausf. A | tank | Clash of Steel | The only one on display in North America | |
| LCVP “Higgins Boat” | landing craft | D-Day | The one on display is a survivor of the Normandy D-Day invasion | |
| Churchill Crocodile | flame thrower tank | D-Day | One of only two on display in the U.S. | |
| Cromwell I | tank | D-Day | One of only two in the U.S. | |
| Jagdpanzer 38 Hetzer | tank destroyer | Battle of the Bulge | ||
| M4A3E2 Sherman “Jumbo” | tank | Battle of the Bulge | The only one on public display in North America; participated in the Battle of the Bulge | |
| M16 Half Track | multiple gun motor carriage | Battle of the Bulge | ||
| M22 Locust | airborne tank | Crossing the Rhine | ||
| M18 Hellcat | tank destroyer | Crossing the Rhine | ||
| A34 Comet | cruiser tank | Crossing the Rhine | The only one on display in the U.S. | |
| IS-2 Iosef Stalin | tank | Battle for Berlin | The only IS-2 on display in North America; served in the Battle for Berlin | |
| SU-100 | tank destroyer | Battle for Berlin | One of only two on display in the U.S. | |
| Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-14 | fighter aircraft | Battle for Berlin | ||
| Sd.Kfz. 8 12 ton | personnel carrier/prime mover | Defense of the Reich | The only one on display in the U.S.; appeared in the film The Dirty Dozen | |
| Kommandogerät 40 | anti-aircraft battery rangefinder computer | Defense of the Reich | One of only three in the world and the only one on public display in North America | |
| 150cm Flakscheinwerfer | anti-aircraft battery searchlight | Defense of the Reich | ||
| JB-2 Loon | flying bomb | Defense of the Reich | ||
| M8 Greyhound | armored car | Liberation | ||
| LVT-4 | landing vehicle | Pacific War | The only one on public display in the U.S. | |
| M4A3 Sherman | tank | Pacific War | ||
| M29C Weasel | personnel carrier | Pacific War | ||
| Daimler Dingo Mk1 | armored personnel carrier | Pacific War | ||
| Type 4 Ho-Ro | self-propelled gun | JPN | Pacific War | Captured in the Philippines and is the only one left in the world |
| M7 Priest | self-propelled howitzer | Korean War | ||
| M26A1 Pershing | tank | Korean War | ||
| M24 Chaffee | light tank | Korean War | ||
| M39 | armored utility vehicle | Korean War | ||
| M2A1 | half track scout vehicle | Korean War | ||
| M4A3E8 76W HVSS Sherman | tank | Korean War | ||
| M41 Walker Bulldog | light tank | Vietnam War | ||
| M48 Patton | tank | Vietnam War | ||
| PT-76 | amphibious tank | Vietnam War | ||
| T72G | tank | Cold War | ||
| M551 Sheridan | amphibious tank | Gulf War | ||
| M60A1 | tank | Gulf War | ||
| T-55 | tank | IRQ | Gulf War | |
| MAZ-7310 | missile launcher | IRQ | Gulf War | The only one on display in North America |
| Scud-B | missile | IRQ | Gulf War | The only one on display in North America |
| 2S1 Gvozdika | self-propelled howitzer | IRQ | Gulf War | Captured by the U.S. Army during Operation Desert Storm |
| M1A1 Abrams | tank | War on Terrorism | The only one on public display in the world. This is the M1A1 commanded by US Marine Sgt George M. Ulloa, which on August 2, 2006 was hit by two IED's in Al Anbar Province, fatally injuring Sgt Ulloa. | |
| QinetiQ TALON | tracked robot | War on Terrorism | ||
| iRobot PackBot | tracked robot | War on Terrorism |
The museum also includes a section of the Berlin Wall, and a September 11 memorial featuring a twisted steel beam from one of the World Trade Center towers. The steel beam was dedicated in a ceremony at the museum on September 11, 2018.