Army Chemical Review presents professional information about Chemical Corps functions related to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, smoke, flame, and civil support operations.
Issue link: https://chemical.epubxp.com/i/759309
Winter 2016 47 and probably in the world." 5 According to the CWS director's annual report, the second of this 10,000-square-foot building was "devoted to the housing of all records of the CWS–American Expeditionary Force and the duplicating (multigraphing and mimeographing) plant." 6 By 1922, the museum was placed under the Property and Museum Branch of the Research Division, CWS, for administrative purposes. Mr. Laurence Phelps, a World War I veteran and civil service employee of Edgewood Ar- senal, was made branch chief, beginning 3 decades of his involvement with the museum. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Mr. Phelps oversaw the museum administration and he appointed a succession of noncommissioned officers and warrant officers to serve as museum directors. The museum continued to collect gas warfare materiel. De- spite severe budgetary restriction, especially during the Great Depression, the museum re- mained open by appointment, allowing "CWS School classes, the Technical Division, and all divisions of [Edgewood] Arsenal" 7 access to its research collection. During this period, the mu- seum occupied various buildings on the arsenal grounds. By 1942, the United States was again at war. Mr. Phelps, now dual-hatted as branch chief and museum director, was commissioned as a captain in the CWS, with the title of property officer and director of the CWS Museum. At that time, the museum collection consisted of approximately 3,000 objects and 15,000 technical books, with buildings and other property totaling $30 mil- lion dollars. In 1946, with the end of World War II, the museum accessioned the captured collections of the German and Japanese gas schools, totaling more than 6,000 objects. The recently promoted Ma- jor Phelps was released from military service and resumed his duties as the civilian director of the museum. Now called the Chemical Corps Museum, it occupied four buildings with open storage and exhibit space of more than 21,000 square feet. By 1948, the museum boasted more than 9,000 objects and nine civilian employees and was open weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and by appointment on weekends. 8 In July 1951, the U.S. Army Chemical School moved from Edgewood Arsenal to Fort McClellan, Alabama; however, the museum remained behind at Edgewood Arsenal, prob- ably to retain its collection for the research and development programs of the Chemical Corps Engineering Command, which also remained at Edgewood. The end of the Korean A photo of the CWS museum in August 1920 (left) and an early museum tag (right) U.S. Air Force Reserve noncommissioned officers observe horse protection equipment inside the museum in 1952.