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Huge insignia collection donated to Army museum

The National Museum of the U.S. Army will be the repository of the most complete and historically significant collection of distinctive unit insignia in the country thanks to a donation by a California company.

Vanguard Industries of Carlsbad, Calif., the largest supplier of military insignia to the U.S. armed services, recently turned over its collection of unit insignia to Ken Smith-Christmas, the museum’s director of exhibits and collections

“The collection of artifacts is truly unique,” Smith-Christmas said. “It includes nearly every one of the unit crests ever produced by the Army’s Institute of Heraldry.”

Vanguard Industries, founded in Manhattan in 1918, obtained the insignia collection in 2000 from the now defunct N.S. Meyer Military Insignia Company of New York.

Museum officials said each of the heraldic artifacts is complemented by colored drawings, blue prints, die stamps, rejects and correspondence between the Army and commercial designers.

Bill Gershen, Vanguard’s president, recognized the historical importance of the collection.

“This is the only collection of its kind in the world because it thoroughly and precisely records in detail the creation of the Army’s entire heraldic distinguished unit insignia system,” Gershen said.

“Private collectors from all over made me many tempting offers to buy it, but I truly believe something this unique belongs to the American public, to the U.S. Army and to those in the Army who are responsible for keeping an accurate and complete history of these valuable artifacts,” he said.

Construction of the National Museum of the Army will begin in 2010 at Fort Belvoir, Va. The $300 million, 156,000-square-foot complex is scheduled to open in 2013.