U.S. Naval Academy Museum

Founded as the Naval School Lyceum in 1845, the U.S. Naval Academy Museum is among the nation's oldest museums and contains two full floors of exhibitions. The first floor includes extensive coverage of the War of 1812 and the original signal flag bearing the words "Don't Give Up the Ship," used to begin the Battle of Lake Erie on September 10, 1813. Upstairs is the Henry Huddleston Rogers Collection of Ship Models dating from 1650 to 1850. On either side of the steps stand two short cannons, HMS Cyane carronades, removed from the ship captured by USS Constitution, "Old Ironsides," in February 1815; Cyane was repaired and taken into U.S. Navy service. The short-range, low-velocity carronade takes its name from the eighteenth-century Carron ironworks in Scotland, where such weapons were first made.

Naval Academy, Maryland · United States