10,500 Square Foot Display Showcases Unseen Artifacts, Photos, and Stories

The Intrepid Museum recently opened a new, 10,500-square-foot exhibition that features over 50 artifacts, oral history videos, photos, and touchable items from WWII. The facility is also now displaying its latest warbird acquisition: a recently restored FG-1D Corsair fighter-bomber.

The museum opened in 1982 centered on the legacy of the USS Intrepid and its crew. The aircraft carrier was one of 24 Essex-class ships built during World War II for the US Navy. The space is also home to the world’s first space shuttle, Enterprise, and the only public-access nuclear-weapons submarine, Growler. Upwards of a million visitors stop by the Intrepid Museum every year.

Now, the museum is adding to its public collection for the first time since 2008 with more than 50 unseen Intrepid artifacts and a WWII aircraft. The permanent, 10,500-square-foot exhibition debuted on March 21 at the Hangar Deck entrance.

The new collection primarily focuses on the Intrepid crew. It includes recorded stories from Intrepid crew members describing their learning experiences, uniforms and gear from various on-board positions, a bracelet engraved with a list of battles and their locations, a fighter pilot’s logbook, and a letter sent to the parents of a fallen crewmember.

The exhibit also brings a more detailed, hands-on view of the ship. It has an animated presentation explaining steam-powered catapults and a touchable tailhook, arresting cable, WWII medal, seal patch, Corsair model, and ship propeller. To tie it to modern aircraft carriers, the display spotlights Intrepid’s construction alongside current methods and technologies.

“This is one of the most compelling and important exhibitions in the Intrepid Museum’s history,” expressed Museum President Susan Marenoff-Zausner. “The stories of the ship’s crew members and the innovation of the ship are simply remarkable. We will be providing additional depth and context to Intrepid's history to bring visitors even closer to what life was like on board.”

Additionally, the Intrepid Museum is displaying a newly restored WWII FG-1D Corsair that is on loan from Florida’s National Naval Aviation Museum. It is one of the very few FG-1Ds that remain and wears the markings of another Corsair flown by legendary Intrepid pilot Alfred Lerch.

FMI: https://intrepidmuseum.org