The Hampton Roads Naval Museum is one of ten Navy museums that are operated by the Naval History & Heritage Command. It celebrates the long history of the U.S. Navy in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia and is co-located with Nauticus in downtown Norfolk, Virginia.In December 2008, the Hampton Roads Naval Museum was accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the gold standard for museum accreditation.CollectionsThe museum’s permanent exhibits include material on the Battle of the Chesapeake (1781), the American Civil War in Hampton Roads, the Great White Fleet, World War II and the Cold War. Museum holdings are strong in the areas of naval prints, ship models and underwater archaeology. The Hampton Roads Naval Museum is the official repository of the remains of two Civil War shipwrecks: USS Cumberland and CSS Florida.HistoryThe museum opened on August 31, 1979, in the historic Pennsylvania House. This building, a replica of Independence Hall, is one of the state pavilions remaining from the 1907 Jamestown Exposition, a world's fair. A major effort during the museum’s tenure at Pennsylvania House was the 1984 installation of a large exhibit on the Civil War in Hampton Roads.
